If there is one business where reorder is king, it’s the contact lens business. I recently received a perfectly executed example of a replenishment campaign from 1-800-CONTACTS and it’s clear that these guys & gals know a thing or two about retaining customers.
Understanding The Customer Buying Cycle
At the heart of any effective reorder campaign is a firm understanding of your customer lifecycle. That knowledge combined with understanding usage patterns for the disposable products you sell, enables you to pinpoint the exact point at which a replenishment email should be triggered for a given SKU.
In the 1-800-CONTACTS example, the email was sent at almost the exact moment that my 6-month contact lens supply ran out – probably not a coincidence.
To understand how this applies to your eCommerce company, consider the following questions:
- What products do you sell that are disposable or have some defined shelf life?
- What products do you sell that wear out over time?
- How long do those replenish-able products typically last?
- What is the simplest path that you could provide for a customer to reorder? How can that friction be reduced?
Frictionless Experience
First, you should steal this value prop for your replenishment email: “Reorder in Just 3 Clicks”. That’s the goal for most businesses.
1-800-CONTACTS nailed this experience, cross-platform. The experience from click-to-conversion was basically effortless. No matter what device I clicked through this email on, my session and prescription regenerated with the same consistency. Even better, 1-800 CONTACTS addressed me by my full name when I clicked through to the site, had my address stored, and only required me to provide some updated payment information — further removing friction that would prevent a customer from buying.
The 1-800-CONTACTS Campaign
We documented the desktop & mobile creative for the campaign in the infographic below:
Have you ever received a great replenishment campaign? What vertical industry was it from? We’d love it if you shared some examples in the comments.
