To understand each stage your customers are undergoing better, feel free to check this table below that summarizes typical customer behavior for each lifecycle stage and an example of the goal you should pursue when communicating with different types of customers.
Lifecycle Stage | Description | Goal |
Recent Customers | Customers who have made 1 or 2 purchases and have done that relatively recently | Cherish: Provide a positive post-purchase experience |
Loyalists | Customers who have made more than 2 purchases and have done that relatively recently | Cherish: Show these customers love while trying to upsell them to become champions |
Champions | Customers who have made more than 2 purchases and have done that relatively recently. These customers' order value is relatively high. | Cherish: Make sure these customers feel loved and rewarded - make them feel extra special with exclusive offers & campaigns |
Need nurturing | Customers who have made 1 or 2 purchases and have done that further in the past than Recent customers | Nurture: Keep them informed with new deals and products to become 2+ buyers |
High potential | Customers who made more than 2 purchases or 2 purchases for relatively high order value. | Nurture: Keep them informed with new deals and products to nudge into buying again |
At risk | Customers who have made 1 or 2 purchases have done that further in the past than those customers who need nurturing | Reactivate: Try to re-activate these customer with win-back automations |
Can't lose | Customers who made more than 2 purchases or 2 purchases for relatively high order value. | Reactivate: Strive and go an extra mile to get these customers to buy again |
About to lose | Customers who made their last purchase a very long time ago. | Deprioritize: Do not spend too many resources with personalized re- engagement campaigns |
A customer is "recent" if their last purchase was less than 40 days ago;
A customer "needs nurturing" if their last purchase was less than 90 days ago but more than 40 days ago;
A customer is "at-risk" if their last purchase was less than 180 days but more than 90 days ago;
A customer is "about to be lost" if their last purchase was over 180 days ago.
You can find more details about how typical behavior is defined (on brand level) in the guide linked below ↓
Sections in this article:
FAQ.
Customer lifecycle stages in segmentation
Each lifecycle stage allows you to achieve specific goals to bring value to your business. To do this, we recommend creating segments based on each lifecycle stage.
To create such a segment, navigate to your Audience tab → Customer breakdown > Select the lifecycle stage → View contacts.
Also, you can build a segment from scratch and use a custom property named 'Lifecycle stage' and choose the needed value (stage). They can be used as stand-alone filters or combined with other segmentation rules.
Customer lifecycle stages in contact profiles
For each customer that has placed at least one order, you can find their lifecycle stage in the Profile view. This gives a better understanding of each specific contact journey and provides a complete single-customer preview.
Note! If a customer hasn't placed any orders, you'll see a dash next to the lifecycle stage, meaning there's no data to analyze yet.
You can read how the lifecycle stages logic is determined in this article: Lifecycle map.
Suggested use cases
Although there are specific actions you could be taking to re-engage all lifecycle-stage-based segments, we suggest focusing on the most valuable ones - cherish the Loyalists and Champions, so your brand is always top of mind for these customers. Also, consider going the extra mile to nurture & reactivate the customers in High Potential and Need Nurturing segments.
1) Customer lifecycle segments in post-purchase automations
You can use different engagement strategies within the same automation workflow. For example, you can build a similar post-purchase workflow to send different emails to your Recent customers, Loyalists, and Champions.
2) Customer lifecycle segments in reactivation automations
You can set up customer reactivation automation workflows based on lifecycle stages. When a customer enters the reactivation stage of the lifecycle (at risk or can't lose segments), you can email them a limited offer to get this customer to purchase from you again.
As customers can reach the same stages multiple times when buying numerous times, we recommend enabling the 'Do not re-trigger workflow for contacts who have already been in this automation at any time option in trigger frequency settings to ensure you are not overwhelming them with emails and SMS.
3) Customer lifecycle segments in campaigns
Send your email campaigns with special incentives to your VIP clients - Loyalists and Champions.
Create a campaign with a more significant discount for these clients, or give them early access to a new collection. There can be multiple ways to show your gratitude.
Make sure to check out our blog to find even more information about Customer Lifecycle stages and how to use this feature to grow your revenue.
FAQ
How often are the stages recalculated?
Lifecycle stages are recalculated once a day, so segments are also updated once a day.
Why is the number of customers that got an email campaign from me when I sent it to a segment based on a specific lifecycle stage lower than the number of contacts in this segment?
Customers with different lifecycle stages can have 'unsubscribed' and 'non-subscribed' statuses, and you can't send email campaigns to them without opt-in.