Those of you running a retail brick & mortar store already know that it's easier to get a customer back into your store after they've made one purchase than it is to get a random person to come in and make the initial first purchase.When it comes to websites, much of the time a website owner is more concerned with making sales than wondering if they have repeat online buyers. Many website analytical measurements are focused around the total number of visitors that come to the site. You usually make more money when the number of visitor goes up, which is why most online marketing efforts involve attracting organic and paid traffic for many different keywords.
But that total number of visitors isn't just about new people coming to your website; it actually includes those who are first time visitors, and those who have been to your site previously. You can see how these visitor numbers break down by looking at a report in your Google Analytics account. You find the report under Audience > Behavior > New vs Returning.
The average percentages for all the jewelers I track shows about 12.3% of repeat website visitors and 87.7% new visitors. I've also measured individual jewelers who achieved 32.4% repeat visitors by engaging customers on social networks and other advertising methods.
A moment ago I mentioned organic keywords and how you usually target different keywords to attract customers. Your keyword report will always include people searching for your store name, this is known as a navigational search which usually includes repeat website visitors.
You can also find repeat visitors listed in the report that shows your traffic sources. There's usually a traffic source that says "(direct)," which includes several repeat visitors.
If you'd like to develop a long term plan of using your website as a business building tool, then you need to figure out how to capitalize on these repeat visitors. You can use cookie tracking through the web browsers to show them the previous items they looked at, and show suggestions of other items they should look at.
Those suggestions don't have to be limited to products, but you could also include blog stories. For example, if you had an "Engagement Story Blog" on your website you could suggest stories that a visitor could read just because they looked at engagement rings on your website. It's not always about pushing products in front of people through your website; you have to recreate the customer experience you provide in the store. Part of that experience is by building trust and explaining how the customers can relate to other people who have also purchased in your store.
I will admit that implementing any website system to capitalize on repeat website visitors is a little more complex than slapping together blog posts and AdWords campaigns to attract new visitors. But if you spend a lot of time and money engaging socially then you need to consider figuring something out.
Talk to your marketing consultant or your SEO professional and brainstorm your own ideas to better interact with repeat visitors.
