As repeat business is the core to most retailers’ success, it’s the total brand experience that determines whether a shopper will return to your store. And the number one factor in building satisfaction, trust, and loyalty to become a repeat buyer is the post-purchase brand experience.

IBM surveyed 1,200 men and woman between the ages of 13 and 60+, which is a subset of their Institute of Business Value study of 26,000 global consumers, asking what influences a shopper to be or not to be a brand advocate. The answers confirmed it is what happens in the post-purchase phase that has the highest influence. 74% of these respondents said that the retailer’s ability to deliver a positive post-purchase experience determines whether they will recommend this retailer to others. 86% of teens (ages 13 – 19) said this factor is the most important in making them brand advocates. Again, when asked if the pre-purchase, purchase, or post-purchase phase had the greatest impact on brand advocacy, post-purchase was ranked having a 28% higher impact than the pre-purchase phase. Along these lines, the post-purchase phase received 46% of votes as damaging the relationship with the retailer if a poor experience was had vs. only 16% in the pre-purchase phase.

Even if a poor pre-purchase experience was had, if the post-purchase experience was positive, shoppers are 52% likely to overcome the poor pre-purchase experience. 65% to 35% also favor the post-purchase experience over the pre-purchase experience in forming a lasting impression of the retailer. Therefore, what is learned that in order for a retailer to get repeat customers, the retailer needs to ensure that the shopping experience is good consistent seamless experience from start to finish… and it’s what happens at the end of the process that will leave an everlasting impression.

How do retailers achieve this then? Well, that’s what Smarter Commerce for Retail is all about. It allows retailers to seamlessly integrate across all selling channels and inventory sources, back-end order orchestration to execute intelligent sourcing, from fulfillment to tracking, and reporting to address today’s empowered consumer. Smarter Commerce enables the retailers to deliver this consistent brand experience to create brand advocates with their consumers.

Source: IBM Smarter Commerce Blog: Looking For Love in All The Wrong Places