How To Grow Your Customer Base As An Online Franchise Business

The biggest challenge facing most online businesses when they first open is attracting and retaining customers.

online franchise owner researching leads

Growing a customer base as an online franchise business will often depend on your success in a number of areas; in particular, this will depend on the reputation and recognisability of the franchisor and any existing audience they may have, the division of marketing responsibilities between the franchisor and franchisee, and the overall demand for the types of products or services you provide.

World Options are a shipping services provider with a successful franchise business model. We’ve helped many franchisees grow their own successful businesses using our methodology, and have drawn on our experience to provide some tips below on how you can see the same success in your business.

For more information about becoming a World Options franchisee, request a franchise pack.

Can You Leverage Existing Customers?

In some cases, your franchise will be able to benefit from an existing customer base. Many of the most popular bricks-and-mortar retail franchises now enable web or app-based orders to local customers, with the option for collection or delivery.

These retail experiences combine the convenience of online ordering with the speed and efficiency of a local shop, meaning that such franchises benefit considerably by sharing the customer base between their online and physical locations.

Having a physical location is one of the easiest ways to build a customer base, as such businesses are much more visible in everyday life than online businesses.

However, there is a significant limitation in the size of your audience. For a fast-food franchise, the potential customer base for delivery only exists within a radius of around half an hour’s travel from the restaurant. If customers are any further away, food will no longer be fresh and warm when they receive it.

Other types of retail businesses may not be subject to the same limitations, but they will only benefit from the presence of a physical location within a certain radius. These businesses must operate primarily as online businesses to customers who live too far away to encounter their premises on a regular basis.

Exclusively online businesses do not have the benefit of a physical presence, which can generate foot traffic and general awareness, but they may still have an existing customer base to work with. Many franchisors will have higher advertising budgets than franchisees and may ask you to contribute towards the company’s marketing budget as part of your franchise fees.

This can certainly raise your franchise’s profile and make it more recognisable to consumers. If the overall customer base for the franchise brand rises, yours is also likely to rise in proportion, so this type of overall rise in brand awareness is often worth making a contribution to.

Training And Resources

If you are unsure how to grow your customer base when you first establish your business, you can also ask your franchisor what resources they can provide to help you.

This may include interactive training modules, written or video materials, or other educational resources that can help you to develop your skills in this area.

Some franchisors will also have online portals where franchisees can access training modules, or revisit the training they were given when they first started their business to reinforce these lessons.

World Options training director showing franchisees the portal

Some franchisors maintain a support service where franchisees can get in touch for help, and if you are unsure how best to reach out and attract customers, this kind of service may be useful. Naturally, your franchisor wants you to succeed as much as you do, and will often be willing to help as much as possible if you are willing to ask.

Beyond this, you can also undertake training yourself. You should first identify areas where you feel that you have weaknesses and seek to address these.

For example, if your business is attracting a certain volume of interested users who are not converting into customers, you might consider a sales course. Alternatively, you might wish to learn to write more impactful website copy or redesign your website to make it easier for customers to navigate and encourage them to make purchases.

Look After Your Customers

Sometimes, a business will view customer acquisition as its primary goal, and fail to take into account metrics like customer retention or churn.

If you can build your customer base and keep your retention rate high, you won’t need to focus as much of your energy on continued customer acquisition. This can also save your business money.

By adding up the money you spend on marketing and sales within a certain period, and dividing this by the number of customers you acquire during that same time, you can calculate your customer acquisition cost, and this can often be very expensive.

Customer relationship management systems can be a good way to maintain relationships with newly acquired customers. Providing great customer service and going above and beyond for regular and return customers can help them to feel valued, which in turn will promote loyalty.

At World Options, our franchisees provide excellent customer service by knowing the shipping and logistics industry through and through. They are always available to advise customers on all of their shipping needs, and by ensuring that the customer has everything they need, our franchisees retain their customers and grow their businesses.

If you are interested in becoming a World Options franchisee and benefitting from a proven methodology and ongoing support, request a franchise pack today.