Traditional off-line companies know
that customer loyalty has a very powerful impact on their profitability.
But what about online-only companies,
where customers can defect to a rival, by simply clicking a mouse? How does
customer loyalty impact on their profitability?
Marketing gurus Frederick Reichheld
and Phil Schefter conducted research into customer loyalty in online retailing.
They worked with Harvard Business School to produce a ground breaking report on
e-loyalty. The report found that in online retailing, increasing customer
retention rates by just 5% can increase profits by between 25% to 95%.
So, in other words, developing an
effective customer loyalty strategy in online retailing is even more important
than in traditional off-line retailing.
In
their own words, here is a summary of Reichheld and Schefter's research findings:
Bain & Company, working with
Earl Sasser of Harvard Business School, analysed the costs and revenues derived
from serving customers over their entire purchasing life cycle.
We showed that in industry after
industry, the high cost of acquiring customers renders many customer
relationships unprofitable during their early years. Only in later years, when
the cost of serving loyal customers falls and the volume of their purchases
rises, do relationships generate big returns. The bottom line: increasing
customer retention rates by 5% increases profits by 25% to 95%. Those numbers
startled many executives, and the article set off a rush to craft retention
strategies, many of which continue to pay large dividends.
When we applied the same methodology
to analysing customer life-cycle economics in several e-commerce sectors we
found classic loyalty economics at work. In fact, the general pattern - early
losses, followed by rising profits - is actually exaggerated on the Internet.
At the beginning of a relationship,
the outlays needed to acquire a customer are often considerably higher in
e-commerce than in traditional retail channels. In apparel e-tailing, for
example, new customers cost 20% to 40% more for pure-play Internet companies
than for traditional retailers with both physical and on-line stores. That
means that the losses in the early stages of relationships are larger.
In future years, though, profit growth
accelerates at an even faster rate. In apparel e-tailing, repeat customers
spend more than twice as much in months 24 to 30 of their relationships than
they do in the first six months. And since it is relatively easy for Web stores
to extend their range of products, they can sell more and more kinds of goods
to loyal customers, broadening as well as deepening relationships over time.
The evidence indicates, in fact, that
web customers tend to consolidate their purchases with one primary supplier, to
the extent that purchasing from the supplier's site becomes part of their daily
routine. This phenomenon is particularly apparent in the business-to-business
sector.
In addition to purchasing more, loyal
customers also frequently refer new customers to a supplier, providing another
rich source of profits. Referrals are lucrative in traditional commerce as well
but, again, the Internet amplifies the effect, since word of mouse spreads even
faster than word of mouth.
Online customers can, for example, use
email to broadcast a recommendation for a favourite website to dozens of
friends and family members. Many e-tailers are now automating the referral
process, letting customers send recommendations to acquaintances while still at
the e-tailers' sites. Because referred customers cost so little to acquire,
they begin to generate profits much earlier in their life cycles.
EBay is one e-commerce leader that is
reaping the economic benefits of referrals from loyal customers. More than half
its customers are referrals. "If you just do the math off our quarterly
financial filings," CEO Meg Whitman recently told the Wall Street Journal,
"you see that we're spending less than $10 to acquire each new customer.
The reason is that we are being driven by word of mouth."
EBay has even found that the costs of
supporting referred customers are considerably lower than for those brought in
through advertising or other marketing efforts. Referred customers tend to use
the people who referred them for advice and guidance rather than calling eBay's
technical support desk. In effect, loyal customers not only take over the
function of advertising and sales, they even staff the company's help desk -
for free!
The combination of all these economic
factors means that the value of loyalty is often greater on the Internet than
in the physical world. For all companies doing business on the Web, the
implication is clear: you cannot generate superior long-term profits unless you
achieve superior customer loyalty.