Customer acquisition vs. retention: a striking reality for your CRM

In an increasingly competitive environment, brands focus their efforts on acquiring new customers to drive growth and expand their databases. Yet these investments do not guarantee lasting profitability. By contrast, customer retention stands out as a far more strategic lever for creating long-term value. It is precisely this tension between acquisition and loyalty that we will explore, with the aim of identifying the most effective approaches.

Customer acquisition: seducing at a high price

Acquisition means attracting new prospects into your database, converting them into buyers, and hoping they become loyal customers. On the surface, this is appealing: more customers = more sales = a larger CRM base. However, this line of thinking overlooks one critical factor: the cost of customer acquisition.

According to a 2026 study, acquiring a new customer can cost between 5 and 25 times more than retaining an existing one (Zipdo – Customer Retention Statistics).

In other words: investing solely in acquisition means paying a high price for a low probability of loyalty.

Customer retention: the path to sustainable profitability

Retention, on the other hand, means considering, nurturing, and deepening the relationship with existing customers, whether they are active, recurring, or “ghost” customers. This includes customers who have already made a purchase but are no longer engaged, or those who have never been properly identified or segmented within the CRM.

The figures speak for themselves:

•       A loyal customer spends on average 67% more than a first-time buyer.

•       65 to 80% of a brand’s future revenue comes from existing customers.

These figures demonstrate not only that retaining customers costs less, but also that it generates more revenue, including in terms of brand equity, customer experience, and repeat purchases.

The “new customer = profit” myth

Many marketing teams still believe that growth comes primarily from capturing new prospects. Yet this reasoning overlooks the fact that the majority of new customers will never buy a second time in the absence of a post-purchase experience. Indeed, the probability of reselling to an existing customer is in the range of 60–70%, compared to just 5–20% for a new customer (Marketing Metrics – The Manager’s Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance).

Moreover, a customer’s true value is built over time, not at the first transaction. The total lifetime value of a customer can be 5 to 6 times greater than the value of their first purchase, but only if brands continue to nurture that relationship long after the sale.

Identifying, recognising, and retaining “ghost customers”

A ghost customer is someone who has already purchased from a brand but cannot be properly tracked by that brand. This may be due to a lack of cross-channel synchronisation, ineffective tracking, or insufficient omnichannel CRM integration.

Reunifying your customer database enables you to gain rich insights into your customer base (purchase history, behaviours, preferences) and to ultimately integrate them into the brand’s CRM, with the goal of extending the post-purchase client experience and building lasting loyalty.

This is where the digital certificate comes into its own: the Trust-Place platform enables brands to collect CRM data from all their customers across every entry point (direct and indirect), giving brands the ability to unlock a world of premium post-purchase experiences and services.

Client Experience: The New Imperative for Brands

Today, consumers no longer simply buy a product: they buy an experience, a universe, a lifestyle. According to a Salesforce study, 88% of customers believe that the experience a brand offers is just as important as the product itself.

The CRM thus becomes the core of a continuous engagement strategy. And it is this strategy, built on genuine consideration and intelligent loyalty, that is redefining the stakes of modern marketing.

Sources :

• Salesforce – State of the Connected Customer

• Zipdo - Customer Retention Statistics 2026

• Marketing Metrics - The Manager’s Guide to Measuring Marketing Performance

• Wifitalents - Repeat Customer Statistics