What Your Ecommerce Brand’s Replenishment Campaigns Are Missing

Replenishment campaigns are extremely important to ecommerce brands, especially in industries where the same product is frequently purchased like health and beauty and food and beverage. These campaigns drive repeat purchases and help brands create loyal customers who come back time and time again. 

When brands think about replenishment campaigns, email is the channel that often comes to mind and rightfully so. According to industry research, replenishment emails have an average open rate of 50-60% and an average click rate of 40-50%. They also have the highest click-to-open rate of any type of lifecycle email. However, while email is clearly a crucial channel, there are many other mediums to consider when building a comprehensive replenishment strategy.

In order to reach your brand’s shoppers at the right time and with the right message and drive repeat purchases, it’s better to take an omnichannel approach. 

Here are some of the channels and ways your brand should be thinking about creating an omnichannel replenishment strategy. There are many other channels to consider, but we’re going to provide advice on where you can get started. Regardless of the methods your brand chooses, it is essential to make sure you are taking an omnichannel approach and reaching your customers where they are and with timely and relevant messages. 

1. Email

You might be thinking, didn’t we just say it’s time to go beyond email?  We did.  But ‘beyond email’ still means that email is an incredibly important channel and foundation of your omnichannel strategy.  

We won’t spend too much time here, since your brand probably already has an email replenishment strategy, but it’s important to make some specific notes about what makes an email replenishment strategy successful. 

The biggest takeaways we have regarding email replenishment campaigns are:

• Be timely: While replenishment campaigns are great ways to keep customers coming back again and again, they are only effective if they are timely. Customers need to be reminded in advance of needing a replenishment of a product in order for it to be successful. Additionally, it needs to be simple so they can act quickly to get the product they need. Reminding your shoppers to reorder their dog food before they may even think of it ensures happy and loyal customers (and happy pets, too.)  

• Provide additional product recommendations: This is hugely important and cannot be stressed enough. While getting customers to buy the same product again is a step in the right direction, getting them to consider and purchase other related products increases AOV and revenue for your brand. With a platform like a CDP brands are able to see a comprehensive view of their shopper’s interests and past purchases to inform data driven recommendations. These recommendations can then be used across channels to show your shoppers that you truly understand their wants and needs and to encourage repeat purchases. 

2. SMS

While SMS is not an entirely new channel by any means, it is one that is often overlooked when it comes to replenishment campaigns.

With more people than ever on mobile devices, it only makes sense to reach your shoppers where they are. And, SMS reaches your brand’s shoppers even when they’re not online, meaning it can often be more effective than email. According to Retail Dive, SMS has 8x the response rate of email.

Here are some things to consider when creating replenishment campaigns via SMS:

• Make it super easy to buy on mobile: SMS campaigns are only effective when it is incredibly easy for the shopper to click and be taken to a mobile friendly checkout process. No one wants to buy (even something that they are about to run out of and need anyway) if it’s a complicated and clunky process. 

• Again, be timely: This is important in every type of replenishment campaign. Make sure the SMS messages are sent in advance of when your shoppers need the product. Keep the messages light and conversational, saying something like “Looks like you’re almost out of face moisturizer, click here to easily repurchase.” Being concise and timely with a medium like SMS is essential. 

Kiehl’s is a great example of a brand excelling with both email and SMS replenishment campaigns. They run email replenishment campaigns when their data tells them a shopper is running low on a specific product and knowing that 85% of their emails are opened on mobile phones, they also provide the same message via text. Their text reminders also offer the option to simply reply “yes” to re-order, following the best practices of both being timely and making the process seamless for the shopper. 

3. On-Site Personalization

Another way to drive repeat orders is by utilizing on-site personalization. 

Again, it all comes down to reaching your customers where they are. If they’re browsing your website, it’s the perfect time to remind them they are almost out of a product and that it is time to make another purchase. And perhaps, even more importantly, it is a great way to suggest relevant products that go alongside the items they already need to repurchase. 

You can tell your shoppers it’s time to repurchase their coffee grounds and suggest another flavor or type of coffee they might enjoy based on their customer profile, driving higher AOV. 

Key Takeaways

Taking an omnichannel approach to replenishment campaigns is essential. Consumers are busy and need helpful reminders across the channels they use most frequently. 

Unsure of where to start? Ask your customers how they want to receive reminders. Make the experience easy and approachable for them and your brand will in turn see higher LTV and more repeat customers. 

Lastly, don’t forget about product recommendations. With many different channels and formats, opportunities are endless to showcase related products you know your shoppers will love.

Learn how to build your omnichannel strategy.