Customer loyalty programs on e-commerce or combined bricks and clicks businesses is an expanding trend these days. After acquiring customers, it is becoming more difficult to maintain them, especially digitally where there is a great variety of choices a click away.
Living in the generation of information, today’s consumers are incredibly well-informed, savvy and careful when shopping. It’s no longer the case that people have to shop at their neighborhood or in the mall to find a bargain; in addition, the explosion in smartphone technology makes ordering products and services for customers easier than ever. A quick swipe and tap of the finger at home or on the go is all that’s required.
On the other hand, today’s consumers are faced with tighter budgets and a huge variety of options – a combination that can make converting site visits to sales more challenging than ever before. So what is the challenge for online companies nowadays? To convert visits to sales and retain customers.
When a customer is making a purchase and is being rewarded, your business will stand out by enriching the unique customer experience offered and get them to come back again. Loyalty has just begun its trip into the demanding world of e-commerce.
But let’s have a look on some useful tips for making your e-commerce loyalty program successful.
Tips:
- The program has to be simple to understand & easy to join
Rewards programs should not be complicated. They have to be simple to explain, understand and join either way people will lose interest. Complexity should be reduced as much as possible. The whole experience should be unique and enjoyable for the buyer.
- The participation process has to be easy and clear
Most customers don’t want to have to enter a PIN or redeem a coupon code just to participate in the loyalty program. If your rewards program requires anything more than a login, card or app, it’s probably too complicated. Think of ways that you can simplify it, and customers will be more likely to participate and engage.
- The loyalty program has a level of surprise or mystery
Customers are driven by curiosity. Loyalty programs and rewards have to be like a game. They want to find out what is the next step or reward, how to beat the next level, and what the final prize is like.
- The loyalty program requires continual participation
Loyalty programs should encourage people to buy more. If that is the case, then you need to encourage participation.
- You can create the program in such a way that points will expire
- Remind users to use their rewards or remain active
- The program gets better as the customer is more active, online or offline
Remind them regularly about their rewards and the potential to win more. Basically, get them to participate as often as possible. QIVOS utilizing its solution “Campaign Management” achieves to engage loyalty program members through personalized communication and other tools maximizing customer engagement.
- People enjoy a new customer experience level
What good is a rewards program that doesn’t feel any better? When a customer makes progress and wins rewards, they want to actually experience it. Even through the online shop you can make them feel unique, by greeting them differently, having a custom cart for them, let them personalize their profile etc.
- The loyalty program makes it easy to share and grow
You want your loyalty program to be heard. There are a few ways to do this:
- Reward users for sharing with their friends or encouraging their friends to join. You don’t want your loyalty program to become affiliate marketing, but there’s nothing wrong with thanking those who share and creating word of mouth
- Create a program so exquisite that people will talk about it
- Add social sharing buttons to the rewards page
- Allow users to post their rewards status to social media. Some successful rewards programs allow the customer to tell their friends about what they’ve just done with a reward program
- Reward customers for 360 engagement
When customers have the possibility to purchase online and offline, your loyalty program should reward them for using all possible channels and engaging with your brand. Furthermore, social media sharing is part of the 360 brand engagement, customers should get incentives for sharing their experience.
QIVOS has successfully implemented a combined e-commerce loyalty program with IKEA Greece, have a look at the whole case study here.
