Beyond the First Purchase: How to maximise Customer Lifetime Value

Customer Lifetime Value (LTV) is no vanity metric. In a world of rising acquisition costs, shrinking attention spans, and tough competition, sustainable growth depends on how well you retain and engage your customers over time. 

The strongest ecommerce brands understand that LTV is built across every touchpoint – from logistics and returns, to community, loyalty programmes, and deeply personalised experiences. 

Drawing insight from our State of Ecommerce report, here’s how leading brands are turning everyday moments into long-term growth engines.

Shipping, returns, exchanges. It’s not glamorous, but it’s where your customers learn to love you – or leave you!

Here’s a mindset shift – stop treating your returns as a loss and start seeing them as a second chance. A return doesn’t mark the end of a transaction, it’s the start of another. Reveni shares that “customers who exchange instead of return tend to have higher lifetime value”. But to capitalise on this behaviour, brands must make exchanges effortless. 

Simple optimisations can deliver an outsized impact: 

• Suggest relevant alternatives 
• Issue instant store credit
• Ship the new item before the return arrives

These small steps can reduce friction, build trust, and encourage customers to stay rather than drifting elsewhere. 

As cross-border growth is becoming a key growth engine for many brands, logistics complexity increases. Expanding internationally unlocks new markets and customers, but also introduces challenges around taxes, duties, customs clearance, and local returns. 

Fortunately, modern tools (many powered by AI and automation) enable even small teams to deliver an enterprise-level experience. Real-time tracking, proactive delay notifications, and exchange-first returns don’t just save operational time; they reduce anxiety, cut support tickets, and turn what used to be pain points into moments of delight. 

Today’s consumers don’t just want to buy from brands, they want to feel like they belong to them. Building an engaged customer community is one of the most effective ways to deepen loyalty and generate advocacy.

“According to recent studies, 86% of companies believe community is critical to their mission. Even better, companies with dedicated branded communities see up to a 20% increase in customer spending as people buy from people they trust.” (Paul Rawlings, Founder & CEO, TheNextLevel). 

A thriving community can increase customer lifetime value (CLV), improve customer retention, turn buyers into referrers, and reduce reliance on paid acquisition. 

The key is choosing the right platform, and keeping it simple. Start where your audience already spends time and ensure it supports conversation, content sharing, and easy moderation. Here are some options to consider: 

• Facebook groups
• Discord
• Shopify + community app (TheNextLevel)
• Reddit

Start small, build momentum, and scale from there.

Measuring community impact

Vanity metrics (likes, members, impressions) will only tell you part of the story. To understand whether your community is truly driving growth, track both community health and business impact metrics. 

As innovation accelerates, brand communities are evolving fast. Trends to watch include:  

• Web3-powered communities: Token-gated access, co-ownership, and member rewards
• Hybrid event models: Blending virtual + IRL experiences (think Nike Run Club or Sephora Squad) 
• AI-driven moderation and insights: Scaling engagement without burning out community teams
• Combined Storefront technology: Platforms such as TheNextLevel combine both selling and community into one app
• Vertical communities-as-a-service: Tools like Mighty Networks enabling fast community launches

Beyond community, personalisation has become one of the strongest drivers of lifetime value.

Rich Evans (CEO, GetBetter) shares in our State of Ecommerce report that tracking on-site behaviours such as browsing patterns, quizzes, or abandoned product views and enriching them with zero-party data like preferences and motivations enables brands to create precision-targeted flows that feel human, not robotic. 

Platforms like Klaviyo unify this data so every touchpoint, from replenishment reminders to post-purchase education, arrives timely. Therefore your customers feel understood, not targeted. 

When brands reflect customer goals – helping them save time, feel confident, or find inspiration – lifetime value isn’t just increased, it’s earned.

Retention has overtaken acquisition as the primary growth driver for ecommerce brands. But retaining customers isn’t easy. Success requires a thoughtful blend of loyalty programmes, email, and SMS marketing, community-building, and social engagement. 

Marton Kosdi-Kovacs (Co-Founder, LoveLoyalty) sums it up perfectly: “it all starts with what a brand shows the customer and how that makes them feel at the first potential purchase.” 

Clearly communicating your loyalty value proposition is essential. Customers want seamless experiences, so brands must carefully consider: 

• How customers earn and redeem rewards
• Where loyalty messaging appears
• When customers are most receptive

For example, showing how many points shoppers could earn directly on product pages can significantly increase participation. Displaying point balance in the cart and allowing quick redemptions (within just a few clicks) helps customers understand the value of their points. 

But today, brands are going beyond the standard ‘earn and redeem points’ model. LoveLoyalty reports an increase in paid membership programmes, offering perks like exclusive discounts, early product drops and more – particularly for fashion and beauty brands, leading to higher AOV and LTV.  

Close collaborations with loyalty programme providers enables brands to tailor programmes around actual customer behaviour, whether that means VIP tiers, subscriptions, memberships or hybrid models. The most successful programmes are deeply aligned with their audience’s motivations. 

We’re in the ‘opt-out era’. Consumers are scrutinising their spending, cutting back on subscriptions that no longer justify their value. LoyaltyLion reports that “a quarter have cancelled one or more subscriptions because prices have increased and they can no longer afford them”.  

Losing subscribers doesn’t just reduce recurring revenue – it weakens one of your most reliable long-term growth engines.

However, loyalty can strengthen subscription performance. Fiona Stevens (Head of Marketing, LoyaltyLion) shares that it’s “a tried and tested approach based on consumer behaviour: 63% of shoppers said loyalty points would make them sign up for a subscription.” 

The key is rewarding loyalty with exclusive rewards they couldn’t get elsewhere. Done right, this leads to increased customer lifetime value, reduced churn, and ultimately growth for your brand. 

LoyaltyLion shares 5 approaches for Shopify brands to help with integrating loyalty and subscriptions:

• Enticing subscriber rewards
• More points for subscribers 
• Exclusive subscriber tier
• Personalised subscriber experiences 
• Points incentives for referring new subscribers   

Brands that excel at personalisation generate 40% more revenue, while 78% of consumers say it makes them more likely to repurchase. 

The most effective strategies deliver value at every stage of the customer journey from site entry to post-purchase. With today’s tools and integrations, it’s easier than ever. Tailoring onsite experiences, enhancing the cart, building trust at checkout, and re-engaging post-purchase – all at scale. 

Reinventing the cart experience 

The cart drawer is no longer just a place to view items. Modern personalisation tools make it easy to turn the cart into a dynamic shopping hub that anticipates customer needs. From leveraging data such as cart contents and customer info, you can include content that encourages deep engagement: 

• Cart cross-sells: recommend relevant products directly below in-cart items with one-click ATC buttons. Personalise using custom rules or AI endpoints. 
• Tiered rewards & GWP: motivate shoppers to add more with rewards such as free shipping, discounts, or gifts. These are great for boosting AOV and delighting new customers.  
• Buy more, save more discounts: show tiered discounts alongside cart items to incentivise bulk purchases, e.g. ‘Buy 2, Save 10%’ 
• Subscription upsells: pair products with discounted subscription offers to drive loyalty. Try ‘Subscribe & Save 20%’ to grow subscriber count. 

Rebuy shares that by making the cart an extension of the shopping journey, brands boost conversions while strengthening emotional engagement. 

Post-Purchase & Trust Touchpoints

Checkout, thank you, and order status pages are prime opportunities to reinforce trust. Thoughtful messaging, satisfaction guarantees, delivery timelines, and secure payment cues build confidence and encourage future purchases. 

Every touchpoint matters, especially the ones customers revisit. 

Lifetime value isn’t built through a single tactic. It’s earned through hundreds of thoughtful, connected experiences – across logistics, community, loyalty, and personalisation – that make customers want to come back. 

Successful brands aren’t those chasing short-term conversions. They’re the ones building long-term relationships. 

Want more insights like these? Download our full State of Ecommerce report and discover more strategies and trends to help you scale your business for the year ahead.