Repeat buyers
The cheapest customer you will ever get is the one you already had
· 5 min read
Repeat buyers — article artwork
Almost every seller spends their energy on finding new customers, and almost every business is actually built on the ones who come back. The person who has already bought from you, received the item, and was happy is the easiest sale available to you — and you already have their number.
Your WhatsApp is a customer list
Every order you have ever taken is a conversation still sitting in your phone. That is a list most businesses would pay for.
You do not need software to use it. You need to know who bought what, and when it might be time for them to need it again.
Message the right person, not everyone
Broadcasting the same message to your whole contact list gets you muted. Messaging the six people who bought a specific item when the restock arrives gets you six sales.
Specific beats broad every time: "The size 40s came back in, you asked about them last month" is a message people reply to.
Know which of your buyers are returning
Soko's returning-buyer analytics, on the Pro plan, tell you which customers have ordered more than once and what they came back for. That is the difference between guessing at your repeat business and knowing it.
On Starter you can still see order history per customer — it is more manual, but the information is there.
Give people a reason to come back on a schedule
Grocers, cafés and salons all have natural rhythms — weekly shops, monthly appointments. Saying "same time next month?" at the end of a sale is the single highest-return sentence in those trades.
For everyone else, the restock message is the equivalent.