Post-purchase behavior: The key to repeat purchases
Carly Greenberg
·August 22, 2024
Want more repeat purchases? Post-purchase behavior is key. Ecommerce brands take note: inspiring customers to action post-purchase drives sales skyward.
In 2026, consumers are thinking harder about how to prioritize their spending. They’re under increased economic pressure, with 32.8% of shoppers saying they’re worse off than last year, largely due to higher costs of living.
As a result, they’re less likely to make purchases on non-essentials, with over half of shoppers saying they planned to curb spending on such items. And younger shoppers in particular are highly value-conscious, with only 21% of Gen Z shoppers saying they regularly pay full price on products. They’re not very loyal to brands either: 82% said they planned to purchase “dupes” rather than name-brand products when doing their holiday shopping last year.
For retailers, delivering strong value will set your brand apart. And that doesn’t just apply to your product – it also applies to your entire process, from initial customer support to shipping to returns.
That makes it imperative to focus on building a complete buyers’ journey that fills your customers with confidence from the start to the finish – including when they need to make a return or exchange. Doing so will not only help you convince more shoppers to make an initial purchase, but make it far more likely that they’ll make a repeat visit to your store.
That’s not just a win for your customers, but for your brand as well: It costs five to seven times as much to win over a new customer as it does to retain an existing customer, so by building a steady base of loyal shoppers, you’ll be able to significantly lower your acquisition costs. Retailers who prioritize enhancing the post-purchase experience have a unique competitive advantage when it comes to building customer loyalty.
What is post-purchase behavior?
In a nutshell, post-purchase behavior encompasses everything that happens after a customer has committed to purchasing a product.
These elements include:
Order confirmation and tracking
After a shopper has placed an order, they’re anxious to know when it’s going to arrive, so transparent communication and order tracking at this stage is crucial.
They need more than a vague ETA: By using Loop Tracking, you can provide real-time order tracking to provide shoppers with an accurate delivery window, helping them gain confidence in your service. You should provide your customers with regular updates throughout the customer journey: start with an order confirmation, then provide updates when the order is scheduled for shipment, when it’s en route, when it’s out for delivery, and when it has arrived. Notify your customers according to their preferences: Some prefer email, while others prefer the real-time engagement of SMS or in-app notifications.
In the event that the order is delayed, be proactive and provide an immediate notification so they’re not left wondering where their order is. By providing them with an updated timeframe, you’ll be able to avoid “where’s my order?” customer support requests, and reassure your shopper around the status of their order.
Your order tracking capabilities should include a branded order tracking page, where customers can see their real-time order status, review common order-related FAQs, and get relevant product recommendations. As 60% of customers track their orders at least once a day, using your order tracking page to curate products your customers will love can lead to renewed engagement and upsell revenue.
Mini Katana, a brand selling katana swords and accessories online, implemented Loop’s automated tracking solution to great results: The brand was able to reduce their support ticket requests by 40%, and increase their resolution speed by an astounding 24x.
Order unboxing
Once the order arrives, how does the customer feel about the unboxing process?
Customers are increasingly focused on sustainability in packaging: A recent survey found that more than one in three consumers had decided against a purchase due to unsustainable packaging.
They may also have issues with package or product defects or damage during the shipping process, which may be due to improper packaging or carrier issues: About 60% of shoppers said that they’d had at least one package arrive damaged in the previous year.
Try to alleviate packaging and unboxing concerns by using compact, sustainable packaging for all of your orders, and using only carriers with great reputations. If the order is large and must be shipped in multiple boxes, that should be clearly communicated upfront, so the shopper knows they’re not missing items from their order.
Customer support
Customers often have questions about their orders, either during the shipping process or after the order has arrived. What is your team doing to address these questions and resolve problems quickly?
Consider using a chatbot that provides quick links to a variety of FAQs, so that customers can do things like check their order status, get information on your returns policy, or find out how to set up a product once it’s arrived. By providing automated self-service support for simple requests, you’ll be able to free up your CX team’s time to handle more complex queries that require in-person support.
Returns and exchanges
Depending on your industry, up to 30% of your product sales may end in a return—and how you navigate this process makes all the difference in whether the shopper will buy from your brand in the future.
Rather than treating returns as an inconvenience, provide your customers with a seamless returns experience that empowers them to easily send back a product they don’t want and replace it with one they do. By using Loop’s Shop Now & Later feature, you can make exchanges as easy as shopping, enabling customers to apply their store credit to any item in your store. Any difference in price can be automatically applied with either a credit or debit to their method of payment, with no need to process a new transaction.
To encourage them to choose an exchange rather than seek a refund, consider offering Bonus Credit that they can apply to their account. By offering a small amount of bonus credit, you can incentivize shoppers to browse your entire inventory—increasing the chances of upsell revenue if the new item they choose costs more than the original product.
By encouraging customers to exchange products rather than request refunds, you’ll be able to transform one-time shoppers into loyal customers. After all, if they simply return a product for a refund, they’re not likely to revisit your brand. But by providing a seamless post-purchase experience that’s optimized to generate retained revenue through exchanges, you’ll be able to keep shoppers from slipping away, resulting in higher lifetime revenue.
Muscle Nation, an Australian gym apparel retailer, uses Loop’s Instant Exchange and Shop Now features to boost customer retention. By activating these features, the brand is able to retain 55% of revenue from its returns, generating $3.13 AUD in upsell revenue per return.
Preventing fraud and returns abuse
Returns fraud and abuse are on the rise, and that can be a concerning part of the post-purchase experience for retailers. In 2024, merchants lost $103B to fraudulent returns and claims.
As a retailer, it’s important to take the necessary steps to protect your brand from abuse – while also protecting the customer experience for the rest of your customer base. By using Loop’s fraud detection and prevention tools, you’ll be able to prevent returns abuse by targeting common high-risk behaviors, while ensuring the rest of your shoppers have a positive returns experience.
Optimizing your post-purchase buyer’s journey
The post-purchase journey encompasses a lot of different elements – so how can you strike the right note with each part of the process?
Be proactive in understanding what’s not working – and take corrective action quickly.
Loop Intelligence is a treasure trove of data that will help you understand your brand’s shortcomings more clearly. You can look at your analytics to uncover issues such as:
- Sizing issues: Are customers frequently sending back particular products for a poor fit? You’ll be able to easily see which products run small or large – and can add recommendations like “size up” or “size down” when shoppers are considering a purchase to help them find the right fit.
- Quality defects: If a specific product or brand is frequently returned due to flaws or issues with quality, it’s time to take a deeper look at your inventory selection. Work with your manufacturer to correct the issues – or simply stop carrying the faulty product line.
- Shipping issues: You’ll be able to see when your brand falls short on delivery expectations by looking at issues around shipping damage, delays, or missing items. In these cases, the problem may be connected to your brand (flimsy packaging or poor quality control in packing), or your shipping carrier. If the problem is internal, look at ways to improve your packaging and QC process – or, if a particular carrier has a high rate of errors, make the move to more reliable shipping carriers.
By looking at your analytics data to discover areas for improvement, you’ll be able to enhance the customer journey across every step of the purchasing and post-purchase process.
Pulling it all together
Ultimately, the goal of optimizing post-purchase behavior is simple: to transform a one-time transaction into a long-lasting, profitable customer relationship. In today's competitive e-commerce landscape, the experience a customer has after clicking "buy" is just as critical as the journey leading up to it.
By focusing on proactive, transparent communication (order tracking), delightful unboxing, efficient customer support, and a seamless, revenue-retaining returns and exchange process, retailers can not only meet customer expectations but exceed them. Committing to the complete buyer's journey will drive customer confidence, build loyalty, and lower your long-term customer acquisition costs, setting your brand up for sustained success.
Want to learn how Loop can uplevel your post-purchase experience? Get in touch!
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