In the face of tough economic headwinds, retailers need to find ways to stand out from the crowd and keep their customers coming back. Given that retaining customers costs less than acquiring new ones and returning customers are more likely to spend than new customers, it makes sense to look for ways to build loyalty.
Conventional wisdom says that the key to this is to reward customers for their spend. But while as many as 97% of consumers belong to some kind of retail loyalty programme, converting members to users can be harder than merely getting them to sign up in the first place.
So how do you build a loyalty programme that cultivates truly engaged customers while still ensuring you deliver value and drive profit margins?
Personalise the experience
Offering a loyalty programme that resonates with customers starts with personalisation. With consumers today also wanting more bespoke experiences, it pays to look for ways to personalise at scale by transitioning from mass-market approaches to strategies that delight consumers with personalised product recommendations and discounts, as well as tailored interactions.
The ability to see each customer’s shopping preferences and purchase history across all channels is critical for building personalised shopping encounters. By using the right unified commerce platform providing a holistic view of your customers, you can better plan your loyalty, pricing and promotion strategies and get the right offer or message to the right customer, at the right time and in the right place.
These personalised messages and offers should supplement mass, at scale touches. By balancing strategies across occasions (such as mass-market events like Click Frenzy and Black Friday) with personalised messages (such as birthdays) you can keep customers engaged. By creating remarkable customer experiences that meet or even exceed their expectations, you can ensure they return, again and again.
Offer instant rewards
Most retailers already provide value to shoppers through pricing strategies, promotional offers and reward schemes. But today, a traditional approach might not be enough to keep them coming back. With 74% of customers preferring smaller, more accessible rewards that allow them to redeem points more frequently, there’s a benefit to offering instantaneous rewards, rather than requiring shoppers to save points before making a purchase.
This shift has coincided with rapid digital acceleration, which has raised customers’ expectations when it comes to online shopping.
However, inconsistent pricing and promotion strategies across all channels can leave retailers falling short of those expectations. While 94% of retail leaders are deploying multi-channel strategies, only 65% say their pricing and promotion strategy is consistent across all channels. And few look at combining their loyalty and pricing tactics to create a unified and differentiated customer experience.
To integrate your loyalty, pricing and promotions, you’ll need a unified commerce platform that combines data from every system and channel across your business.
You can then start increasing your number of loyalty members by offering rewards that meet their needs. Exclusive pricing promotions – such as immediate percentage or cash discounts for loyalty programme members – can satisfy the desire to enjoy rewards straight away rather than saving points for redemption later.
Enhance omnichannel shopping
Today consumers don’t think in terms of channels. They now expect a “one-brand” approach that lets them shop at any time, using any channel, from any device, at the best price. And when it comes to loyalty and digital experience, they are more likely to value convenience over the loyalty programme itself.
When done well, a unified commerce platform elevates and streamlines the shopping journey and offers you a competitive advantage through a more nuanced understanding of your customers and what drives them to keep coming back.
But if you’ve got siloed backend systems and processes that leave your customers dealing with inconsistencies and gaps, you simply cannot offer a seamless experience, and the convenience and personalised customer service that support a robust loyalty offering will be severely compromised.
Implementing a complete omnichannel solution allows you to bridge the gap between customer expectations and the drivers of loyalty and retention.
Modernise your point of sale
Stores remain the dominant sales channel globally, still generating more than 70% of sales and expected to continue to grow at 4% year on year. Stores are also a vital channel for driving loyalty. For customers, in-store shopping offers instant gratification, personalised assistance, product comparison and social interaction, while it gives retailers the chance to deliver a tailored, tactile experience that builds repeat business.
But these interactions need to be supported by a POS solution that can function anywhere your ecommerce platform can, so that your online and offline presence complement each other and offer the seamless, integrated browsing and buying that customers expect. By putting current, detailed customer information at your employees’ fingertips, you empower them to become the frontline of retention.
Want help to enhance your loyalty programme?
As you transform your customer experience to retain loyal customers, increase market share and maximise profits, your retail systems must transform as well. If you’re looking for help to develop your loyalty and personalisation capabilities, get in touch. We’d love to help you develop more meaningful relationships that deliver profitable growth.
