As an eCommerce business owner, customer engagement is the key to your success. The more engaged your customers are, the more likely they are to buy from you.

But what if we told you there was a way to get even more sales with less effort?

Imagine being able to set up a customer engagement workflow that helps customers every step of the way, from discovering your brand all the way through their purchase and even after—all with just one tool!

That’s what this blog is all about: pre- and post-purchase customer engagement workflows that will help you get more sales for your business by keeping customers engaged throughout their entire journey.

In this blog, we break things down into pre and post-purchase customer engagement workflows you need to have in place with the help of automation using a customer engagement tool like LimeChat.

Must have ecommerce customer engagement workflows 

While there’s no one-size-fits-all approach to customer engagement, here are some of the most recommended workflows for ecommerce businesses. 

Pre-purchase customer engagement workflows 

As an ecommerce business owner, you know how important it is to offer an unforgettable customer experience even before they consider making a purchase. In fact, this is what will set your brand apart from the competition. But how do you make sure that every customer who visits your site has the best possible experience?

Pre-purchase workflows are designed to help brands maximise conversions, reduce drop offs and impress potential customers by conveying a strong brand story. They can be used before a purchase is made or when someone is just browsing around on your site. The goal of these workflows is to provide the best possible experience for visitors in order to increase conversion rates and generate more revenue.

Here are four examples of pre-purchase customer engagement workflows that we’ve found effective:

1. Welcome flow 

Your welcome flow is your first impression, and you want to make a good one. It’s the beginning of the user experience, so it’s important to set up some groundwork to make sure you’re ready to go when they get there.

This flow welcomes new customers to your brand and allows you to tell your brand story. The welcome flow should not be too long; instead, it should focus on highlighting the key benefits of using your product or service in a way that appeals to the visitor’s needs and interests. 

For example, if you’re an online grocery delivery service, you could use this flow to highlight how convenient it is for busy families with small children who don’t have time for grocery shopping themselves.

2. Browse Abandonment Flow 

If you’re like most ecommerce businesses, you know how important it is to get people interested in your products or services before they make a purchase. You want them to browse through your pages and look at your products, but not all of them will actually convert into buyers.

That’s where the Browse Abandonment Flow comes in! 

This flow enables you to recover customers who browse/search and leave without making a purchase. With this flow, you can create a follow-up message alert that’s sent automatically after a customer leaves your site without making a purchase. The message can include:

• A discount code for another product
• An offer for free shipping on their next order if they spend over $50

In addition, consider using personalised product recommendations based on customer behaviour, such as abandoned shopping carts or abandoned checkout processes. This strategy aims to identify the products that customers are most likely to buy and then offer them those products on their next visit. Reach out to them with the right products and recommendations.

The best way to get started with this workflow is by creating a product recommendation message template that you can send through automation. 

You can also set up drip marketing campaigns that are triggered by certain actions, such as completing a product search or adding an item to cart. That way, you’ll be able to send prompts at optimal times and encourage people back towards making purchases they were originally considering.

3. Abandoned Cart Flow 

The Abandoned Cart Flow is one of the most important flows for e-commerce brands because it allows you to convert as many visitors into customers as possible. It’s all about making sure that users who abandon their carts get a timely reminder to come back and purchase.

This flow can take several different forms, depending on what works best for your business. You might want to send a text message immediately after signup, or you might want to wait until 24 hours after the user has abandoned their cart before reaching out again. You could even create a drip campaign that continues sending reminders for up to seven days after someone abandons their cart!

You can use this flow to remind them why they added those items to their carts in the first place or point out any special offers that are only available for a limited time. You can also use this opportunity to offer additional information about your products or services and provide links that will help them make informed decisions about whether or not they should buy from you.

In doing all this, you’ll need to make sure that the email doesn’t feel too pushy—you don’t want people feeling like they’re getting spammed—but at the same time, you don’t want them to forget about your product!

4. Back in Stock Flow 

If you’re an eCommerce business, you know that the inventory management and ordering process can be a headache. While it’s important to make sure that you have enough stock to meet demand, it’s also important not to overstock your store and take up valuable real estate with items that aren’t selling.

That’s where the back-in-stock flow comes in. This workflow allows you to inform your customers when your product is expected to be in stock again—and even ask them if they would like to reserve or preorder it!

If they do choose to pre order, this workflow can send them a message when the item becomes available for purchase. You can also set up rules so that if someone reserves more than one item, only one will show up on their list of reservations when the item becomes available for purchase.

This workflow is a great way for eCommerce businesses to engage with their customers and get them excited about new products and promotions. It’s also a great tool for eCommerce businesses that have limited inventory and would like to provide information about when those products will be available. 

This is perfect for those items that are frequently out of stock but also frequently requested—like seasonal items or fast-moving toys.

Post-purchase ecommerce customer engagement workflows 

It’s no secret that a customer’s experience starts before they even make a purchase, but it continues even after the purchase is complete.

Post-purchase workflows are an important aspect of eCommerce customer experience. Customers are more likely to come back to your website if they have a positive experience, so it’s important to make sure you don’t let them down with the post-purchase process. Post-purchase workflows can help you turn happy customers into raving fans and advocates for your brand.

Post-purchase workflows are the series of steps that happen after a customer has made a purchase, from receiving a message confirming their order to having it delivered to their door. The best post-purchase workflows are simple, easy for customers to understand, and seamless for them to complete. They also include all the steps necessary for you to fulfil your orders and ensure that any returns/refunds are handled correctly.

It’s important that your post-purchase workflow be as simple as possible because when it comes time for customers to decide whether or not they want to make another purchase with you, they’ll be looking at how easy it was for them to move through this process last time around (and how long it took). If there were too many steps involved in redeeming their coupon code or making an exchange, then chances are pretty good that they won’t use those services again—or at least not anytime soon.

There are four main types of post-purchase workflows that eCommerce businesses should consider setting up:

1. Thank You Flow

The Thank You Flow is a post-purchase workflow that should be set up after your customers have made their first purchase. This workflow is designed to engage with customers and thank them for their purchase while also encouraging them to make more purchases in the future. This can be done by offering coupons, discounts, or free shipping on future purchases.

The goal of this flow is to give your customers a positive experience as soon as they have completed their purchase. The Thank You Flow should also be used to convey any information about returns and exchanges that are available for your products so you can help your customer make sure they are happy with their purchase.

2. Cross-Sell and Upsell Flow

If a customer has made a purchase, it’s likely that they’ll want to buy something else from you. You can use this opportunity to upsell or cross-sell other products.

A cross-sell or upsell occurs when a customer is making a purchase and is offered an additional product or service that enhances or supplements that original purchase. These are generally done in order to increase sales volume, but they can also be useful if you’re trying to maximise profit margins on each sale since you’ll be selling more items per transaction. 

For example, if a customer buys a pair of shoes, you might suggest they also take advantage of the free shipping and buy another pair of shoes or accessories. Or, if a customer buys a phone case, you might suggest they also get a screen protector. 

You can even use this information to create personalised recommendations based on past purchases, like “if you bought this shirt and these pants last week, why not get both in black?”

Cross-sell, and upsell flows are perfect for eCommerce businesses to increase their revenue by:

• Upselling a related product to the customer that is already purchasing another product in the cart (like shoes for winter boots)
• Cross-selling another product that complements the existing purchase (like a scarf to go with a coat)
• Upselling a higher tier or more expensive version of the same product (like upgrading from a basic model to an advanced model)

Offering a cross-sell and upsell flow is another great way to keep customers coming back over time. Offering them other products that may be of interest based on what they’ve already purchased will help ensure that they keep coming back for more, which is exactly what you want! 

3. Customer Winback Flow

Customer win-back flow is the process of re-engaging with your customers who have made a purchase but haven’t returned to make another one. This strategy helps attract customers who have abandoned their carts and get them to buy your products. There are many ways to do this, but here are some of the most effective:

• Send product recommendations based on abandoned carts. If someone has put items in their cart and left, it means they were interested in buying. Sending them a follow-up email with similar items or sales on those items can help them complete their purchase.

• Send message alerts with personalised offers based on the customer’s past purchases and browsing history. For example, if someone has purchased from you several times before, send them an offer for free shipping if they buy today. If someone hasn’t purchased from you in a while but has browsed your site before, send them emails about new products or sales and see if they respond positively to those emails.

• Use retargeting ads on social media platforms like Facebook or Instagram to show them ads for products they viewed but didn’t purchase when they were last on your site; this will remind them of what they saw before and hopefully entice them into making another purchase!

This flow implements an automated message sequence that helps you re-engage your customers with personalised messages. The messages are triggered based on the customer’s behaviour and preferences. With this flow, you can create a winback strategy that is 100% personalised and relevant to your customer’s needs.

Customer Winback Flow helps you:

• Convert more abandoned carts into completed purchases by sending timely follow-up emails.
• Boost sales by offering discount coupons or free shipping for returning customers who bought from you before.
• Reduce churn rate by sending reminder emails about your loyalty program or upcoming sales events, so they remember why they love your brand so much!

4. Replenishment Flow

Replenishment flow is one of the most important workflows for e-commerce businesses, especially if they are selling products that need to be replenished after they have been purchased.

The replenishment flow is a great way to keep customers engaged with your brand. It is also an excellent way to create loyalty among customers since it helps them feel like they are special by giving them something that other people don’t have.

It is also a great way to remind customers about products they may have forgotten about or even to remind them of new products that have been added to your inventory since their last purchase.

5. Review and feedback request flow 

Another important workflow we do recommend setting up across all channels of communication is requesting product reviews and customer feedback. 

Once a consumer makes a purchase from your brand, it is important to gauge how they feel about interacting with your brand. This helps you understand how they feel about the purchase they have made, and at the same time, calculate the probability of them coming back to your business to make another purchase. 

An ideal workflow here that we recommend automating is as follows: 

• Send out a customer feedback request on the preferred channel of communication to gauge the sentiment of the consumer 
• If the consumer feedback is positive, automate a product review and rating request to collect social proof on the item purchased 
• If the consumer feedback is negative, automate a follow-up that is targeted at understanding what they expected from your business and how you can offer them the same 
• Keep the conversation going based on interaction and responses, ensuring you’re able to deliver as per consumer interests 

Wrapping up

The most successful businesses are the ones that keep their customers engaged throughout the shopping journey.

Pre-purchase, this means offering them value-added content and guidance. Post-purchase, it means building a relationship with them so that when they need support or information about their purchase, they can rely on your brand.

To do this, you need to automate your customer engagement workflow so that you can provide timely and contextual responses to your customers’ needs. You also need to leverage AI so that those responses are personalised and tailored specifically to each individual customer—not just based on broad demographic data.

If you’re ready to take your business’ customer engagement to the next level, we can help. Whether you’re looking to automate your pre-purchase engagement workflows or to get more sales out of the post-purchase ones, 

LimeChat has your back. 

Our AI-powered customer engagement platform can help you create personalised conversations that feel like they were written by a human—and it will keep those conversations timely and contextual, no matter where your customers are in their journey with your brand.

With LimeChat, you can automate the seamless transfer of conversations from one platform to another—no matter if that’s from email to chat or from chat to voice—and ensure that they’re timely and contextual throughout the entire process.

Book a demo today!