6 Post-Purchase Survey Examples You Can Steal to Learn More About Your Customers

The insights you gain from post-purchase surveys enable you to: 

• Double-down on the most effective marketing tactics
• Segment customers for personalized marketing campaigns 
• Create more effective campaigns that speak to why people actually buy, and
• Inform product development

Ultimately, post-purchase surveys are helpful tools for collecting customer data to focus your marketing efforts and grow sales. 

Want to set up a post-purchase survey for your customers? Start by learning the right questions to ask in these surveys. Then see how other ecommerce brands are using their post-purchase surveys to make informed business decisions.

What is a post-purchase survey? 

A post-purchase survey is a small set of questions shown to customers immediately after their purchase—typically on the thank you page.

You can use them to gain insights into: 

• Your customer’s shopping behavior (example: what led them to buy from you) 
• The marketing channels that are driving the most conversions for you
• Ways to improve your store’s conversion rate

Including these immediately after the customer purchases is effective because how they found your brand and why they purchased are still top of mind for them.

What questions to ask on a post-purchase survey

The exact questions you ask will depend on your goals. For instance, you could use the survey to:

• Improve your conversion rate
• Personalize campaigns
• Understand marketing attribution
• Conduct audience research
• Design products your audience will buy

Consider these examples of different questions to ask in your post-purchase survey based on your goals. Tweak your survey questions’ copy based on what’s most relevant to your brand. 

Conversion rate optimization questions 

Use these questions to identify and rectify factors (such as a faulty checkout button) that create friction in the checkout experience: 

• Was there any part of the website that was difficult to use?
• Is there anything about your shopping experience that you found particularly convenient or helpful?
• What almost prevented you from purchasing today? 

Personalization questions 

Use the information you get from these questions to segment buyers and personalize your marketing efforts.

Brainstorm different personalization question options that will be most relevant for your brand, like: 

• When is your birthday? 
• What is your gender?
• Who did you purchase for today?
• What kind of animals do you own?
• What luggage do you travel with?

Marketing attribution questions

Questions like these help pinpoint which marketing channels are driving the most customers so you can focus your marketing efforts on high-converting channels:  

• How did you first hear about us?
• Where did you first hear about this product?
• How long have you known about our brand?

Audience research questions 

These survey questions help you better understand your buyers, what their values are and why they purchased:

• Why did you buy from our store? 
• Why did you come back to shop with us again? (for returning customers)
• What led you to choosing our brand over other options you were considering?
• What impact will this purchase have on your life?

Product development questions

These questions can help you figure out where to focus your product design efforts:

• How will you use the product you bought?
• What features are you most looking forward to?
• What accessory would be really useful for you to use with this product?
• What problem does this product help you solve?

Bonus: These questions can also give you insights for cross-selling products.

Now that you know the basics, review these ecommerce post-purchase examples for inspiration:

1. Native’s marketing attribution post-purchase survey 

Skin and hair care brand Native has a one-question survey asking shoppers where they heard about the brand: 

Since Native only asks one question and that too, a multiple-choice question, the odds of shoppers completing the survey are high. As a result, the gathered information gives the store a definite answer into which marketing channels to amplify its efforts on. 

When using a one-question post-purchase survey yourself, consider switching the question regularly to gather insights about different topics.

2. Tortuga’s repeat customer post-purchase survey 

Travel gear brand Tortuga has a different post-purchase survey depending on whether the customer is new, or has come back for another purchase. After all, the brand already has the answer to the first post-purchase survey. So probing into why customers decide to purchase again can lead to helpful insight for increasing repeat orders: 

You see, unlike a consumable products brand, people don’t buy travel backpacks frequently. Tortuga’s CEO Fred Perrotta says, "We're trying to see what brought someone back when we have such limited SKUs."

If the team at Tortuga can identify patterns on what’s bringing people back, they can encourage other customers to follow the same path—whether that’s returning to buy an accessory for their first purchase or to gift a backpack to someone else.

Bonus: Fred also says Tortuga is getting great data from a two-step survey for new customers that asks:

• How’d you hear about us?
• Why did you decide to buy from us?

“The answer to both is basically ‘reviews,’” Fred says. As a purchase reason, reviews “were mentioned more than size, comfort, or any features.”

Knowing the impact of reviews, the team can amp up efforts of seeding products to review sites and travel bloggers. And they can highlight those reviews in other places—like on the product page and in emails—to nudge the customer toward purchase.

3. Mysa’s audience research post-purchase survey

Smart thermostat store Mysa’s post-purchase survey starts with a two-part, marketing attribution question about where the customer first heard about them: 

Based on the answer, Mysa asks a follow-up question to learn exactly which platform helps the most with brand discovery: 

The next question is designed to understand how the brand’s customers are using its smart device: 

And the last question, an open-ended one, inquires why the shopper decided to buy a Mysa: 

Starting with a low-commitment question lets Mysa get its foot in the door to ask more questions. 

The questions themselves help the store understand which channels to attribute its brand awareness efforts to, what role its product plays in customers’ lives, and what’s encouraging shoppers to buy from them—which can help them gain insight into their value proposition against competitors. 

The Mysa team also makes another genius move here: they use a popup to deliver this survey after a customer purchases. While embedded surveys are common, a popup ensures customers see the survey.

Ultimately, the information Mysa collects gives it essential fodder for improving marketing efforts.

4. Doe Beauty’s incentive-based post-purchase survey

Doe Beauty, a false lashes store, offers shoppers an incentive of 10% off their next order to encourage them to click and take its survey: 

The survey itself begins with a simple marketing attribution question:

It’s paired with a follow-up question asking customers to select the exact platform that helped them discover the brand. 

Next, Doe asks shoppers about their likelihood of recommending the brand. They use a rating scale that makes customer satisfaction easy to analyze and simple for survey takers to answer this question: 

The last question is an open-ended one—asking if the brand could do something more to improve the shopping experience: 

By taking an incentive-led approach to its post-purchase survey, Doe Beauty drives two main benefits: 

• It encourages shoppers to take the full survey 
• It drives repeat orders, therefore, grows sales 

5. Ably Apparel’s product-specific post-purchase survey

Ably, an odor- and stain-resistant apparel store asks shoppers why they chose the specific item and positions it under the product purchased in the order summary:

The helps Ably source feedback on specific products, which is valuable information for promoting that product and designing more clothing that reflects what customers want. 

6. Cycles Journals' two-questions post-purchase survey

Cycles Journal is a store selling menstrual wellness tracking journals. The store asks two questions. 

The first question, positioned toward the top, asks what shoppers wish the store sold, giving customers a handful of options to pick from: 

Data from this question helps Cycles Journal determine market demand for other products it could offer. 

The other question, located toward the bottom of the confirmation page, requests a star rating for an overview of the shopper’s experience in its store. 

This information tells the cycle journal store how usable its website is, which is a helpful way to remove friction from the checkout process.

Ready to power your marketing efforts and product development with shopper insights? It’s easy to create a post-purchase survey for your thank you page with ConvertFlow’s all-in-one conversion platform.

Just choose a survey template. Then, use ConvertFlow’s no-code, drag-and-drop builder to customize it for your brand and goals. Integrate with your ecommerce platform in just a few clicks to launch it on your website's thank you page and watch the responses roll in.

Get started with these ready-to-use templates: