Retail Trends: Reimagining the post-purchase journey to enhance customer experience 

The industry adage holds true—it’s easier (and less costly) to retain a customer than it is to win over a new one. In addition to brand activations, PR campaigns, and loyalty programs that keep brands top of mind for customers, many brands are taking a closer look at their customer experience—particularly the post-purchase journey.   

The post-purchase journey extends beyond traditional customer service. It encompasses transparent communication from purchase to delivery, a quick-and-easy returns process, relevant messaging that adds value for recent buyers, and guidance on product recycling or resale options. Drivers of emotional loyalty—trust, reliability, appreciation, investment, empathy, and shared values—each play a role during this critical time. Brands must work to ensure customers feel good about their purchase and their experience with the brand, mitigating feelings of buyer’s remorse or regret. 

We dive into four trends shaping the post-purchase journey and how brands can successfully leverage each to enhance the customer experience and increase emotional loyalty to the brand. 

Convenient delivery is table stakes today with 32% of customers willing to “abandon their carts due to long delivery times.” In fact, 67% of retailers have identified a limited delivery network as a cause for limited sales. Giving customers the power to choose the delivery option that best suits their needs is important, especially for retailers looking to demonstrate investment and reliability to increase emotional connection and loyalty to the brand. 

Most recently, Walmart expanded its options and now offers early morning delivery starting at 6 a.m. In 30 minutes, customers can get a range of items, “from fashion to furniture.” Customers can continue to opt for same-day, two-day, eco-friendly, and late-night express, giving them the flexibility they crave and increasingly expect.

As fraudulent returns increase, retailers are reducing return windows, making some items non-returnable, raising return fees, and offering returns insurance. However, the decision to implement these solutions comes with the risk of turning away shoppers. Seventy-six percent of adults say they are likely to shop with retailers who don’t charge for returns. However, according to Gartner, the way that a brand’s return policy is communicated influences a good customer experience more than the policy itself. Mintel data backs this up, showing, “45% of adults think hassle-free returns or exchanges make a shopping experience more convenient.”  

Pitney Bowes and PackageHub business centers have partnered to orchestrate a returns drop-off network where shoppers can complete no-box, no-label returns at 1,000 locations in the U.S., at no extra cost to customers or retailers. By leveraging QR codes, offering multiple drop-off options, and eliminating packaging, both brands create a more convenient return solution that can reduce fraud at the same time.  

Amazon also recently introduced a program to let sellers using its fulfillment services opt to give customers refunds without requiring a return. Because returns processing can be cumbersome and expensive, this may make sense for some brands. Brands that focus on improving the returns process and removing as much friction as possible demonstrate trust and empathy, two key drivers of emotional loyalty. 

According to an Incisiv and Talkdesk survey, “nearly 7 in 10 shoppers prefer retailers that offer personalized experiences across channels, including digital and physical touchpoints.” However, the survey also found only a third of retailers are personalizing parts of their customer journeys.  

Included in its retail media network offerings, Macy’s is helping non-endemic advertisers connect to Macy’s customers after a completed transaction. In a partnership with Rokt, Macy’s leverages an AI-powered tool to analyze its first-party data and help advertisers deliver personalized offers with “the right message at the right time.” Considering the post-purchase journey and known customer needs and preferences to enhance offer relevance in this way shows appreciation for the purchase and an investment in longer-term loyalty and repeat purchases.  

Sustainability is becoming a prominent value shared by consumers and brands alike with re-commerce—a focus on circular products and secondhand use—gaining ground. According to Mintel, 42% of adults agree that a company’s sustainability efforts impact where they shop. Consumers are also thinking about ‘value’ as more than low cost or affordability. While a desire to save money still exists, consumers also consider the durability and quality of products for the price. More than half of consumers expect sustainability to play a bigger role in their future purchasing decisions, and for millennials, this number is nearly 70%. A key factor brands should keep in mind is whether their sustainability efforts are temporary or a part of their long-term operations and brand values. Consumers want to see brands make sustainable investments and back up the shared values they tout. 

While many brands limit their sustainability initiatives to promotional product take-back, Smartwool is an example of a brand truly integrating sustainable practices into its operations—and showing industry-leading levels of transparency. While Smartwool has been investing in product circularity since 2021, its newest offering, the Second Cut hiking sock, takes this to the next level. By using socks collected through their popular sock take-back program, and in partnership with circularity manufacturing facility Material Return, Smartwool is deconstructing, cleaning, and re-spinning material from old socks into “new” thread. Along with ethically sourced merino wool, the re-spun thread is used to make a 50% recycled sock. Since 2021, Smartwool has collected more than 725,000 socks and diverted over 54,200 pounds of them from landfills. 

To break through and connect on a deeper, more emotional level with consumers, brands must lean into personalized, differentiated post-purchase experiences. This could include delivery updates, remediation through customer service, product returns, product end-of-life education/upcycling, and offers based on recent purchases. A poor experience at any one of these touchpoints could lead to customers feeling underappreciated and negative outcomes for the brand, such as reduced share of wallet or losing customers entirely.  

Successful brands will consider the entirety of what happens within the first couple of weeks after the transaction, delivery, and use, recognizing the potential to influence long-term loyalty during this critical part of the customer journey. 

Retailers can build a customer-centric post-purchase journey by leveraging the emotional loyalty drivers of trust, reliability, appreciation, investment, empathy, and shared values, to demonstrate: 

1. Customer appreciation through convenience and flexibility 
2. Empathy for unmet customer expectations and making things right 
3. Reliability and relevance through personalized messaging and shared values 
4. Thoughtful operational investment and product development  

Learn more about the six key drivers of emotional loyalty and how they help brands humanize loyalty efforts by downloading our Humanizing Loyalty and Participation reports.