Are you allotting more store credits than those used? Here’s how to boost customer engagement on your loyalty rewards.
Whether you’re a marketer or not, you know that customer retention is much more cost effective than acquiring new customers.
Businesses are applying different strategies to focus more on customer retention. One such strategy is setting up a loyalty program. It helps to keep customers engaged and improve retention rates.
However, giving out rewards and store credits is one aspect of the program. Another, and a more critical part is to keep customers engaged in these programs.
To make it easy for you to improve customer engagement on Shopify store credits, we’ve put together nine proven strategies. Here you go!
9 strategies to improve customer engagement on Shopify store credits
1. Make it easy for your customers to earn store credits
While there are many reasons why customers like certain websites, there are many more reasons that put them off sites. One such reason is complex navigation and difficulty performing actions.
So, merely providing opportunities to earn store credits is not enough. It is important to make it easy to earn store credits.
For example, say you’re offering store credits to customers to log into their accounts on their birthday. The simple action of logging in should also be made simple with just a few clicks. Social login is even better.
Some opportunities for customers to earn your Shopify store credits:
- Share reviews
- Share feedback
- Refer a friend
- Upgrade membership plan
- On customer’s birthday
- Upon purchase of a certain amount
- When customers return or exchange products
- For subscribing to your newsletter
Customers should be able to perform all these actions with ease. The more complex things get on your website, the less likely they’d be inclined to earn rewards or store credits.
Consider this: 94% of consumers say easy navigation is the most important factor for them on websites.
2. Make it easy for customers to use their store credits
Think about it – how many people actually make use of reward points earned on credit cards? 50% of customers find it difficult to figure out how to redeem points. Besides, most times, customers have to wait until they reach a certain number of points in order to redeem them.
Now, think about whether or not it’s easy for your customers to use your Shopify store credits. Have you set too many rules and regulations, conditions, etc., keeping customers from using the points?
Here are some things to avoid and to apply:
- Don’t put a condition on when customers can spend store credits. For example, when they collect 1000 credit points. Allow them to use up credit points as and when they want to
- Enable customers to share their store credits with their friends and family members. That way, you can increase your customer base as well as sales
- Don’t put restrictions on using store credits to buy discounted products. Allow customers to buy all products on your site with store credits
- Allow customers to use store credits at any time and not restrict it to a specific date. For example, store credits valid until July 30, 2022
3. Proactively send updates
Today’s customers shop on multiple sites. This means they receive messages from different brands. It’s highly unlikely that customers keep a track on what’s going on on all the sites. They expect brands to send them updates.
Are you proactively sending updates to your customers?
There are many reasons why you should send regular updates:
- When you keep customers up to date, they can make the most of your store credits feature
- When you send regular updates, customers feel like you care and are working hard to give them a good experience
- Your customer might be a part of many reward programs on other eCommerce sites and might not keep track of their points on all sites. Hence, if you send them updates about their current points, they’d be reminded and motivated to use them
To send store credits updates to customers, be active on all your communication channels such as SMS, email, web push, WhatsApp, Messenger, and other channels that you use. This way, you can be sure your customers don’t miss out on the information.
Here are the different types of updates you could send to customers about store credits:
- When they earn new store credits, send them an update about how many points they earned
- Every now and then, remind them about their store credits balance so that they know they can make use of them
- When there’s an opportunity for customers to earn more credits, let them know. This would boost engagement, at times, instantly
4. Tell customers about the value of their store credits
The number or amount of store credits is one thing, but do you tell customers the actual value of the credits they’ve earned? By value, we mean the benefits and what customers could do with their credits.
For example, once you tell customers they have 1000 store credits, also let them know they can get 10% off on it. This way, they would be able to visualize and see the tangible benefits of their credit points easily.
Here’s another example of what value would mean in rewards programs. A study found that more than half of millennials would prefer to donate their rewards points to a good cause. This means brands could personalize the value that different segments of their customers receive from their program and make it more relevant to them.
Here are a few ways in which you can enhance the value of store credits for different customers:
- Allow them to gift store credits to their friends
- Offer discounts on a specific amount of store credits
- Make use of data to personalize offers and bring in flexibility and freedom
- Reach out to customers at the right time, on the right channel with the right message
- Allow customers to donate store credits towards a good cause
5. Gamify the store credits experience
Today, most eCommerce brands have a rewards program on their site. Afterall, it’s one of the most common marketing tactics.
Now, if you have a run-off-the-mill store credits program, you might not be able to hold customers’ interest.
But there’s a fun way to keep customers engaged in your store credits program – gamification.
Gamification in rewards programs can help increase engagement 1.7x.
However, as per the above infographic, only half of eCommerce brands employ gamification in rewards programs.
Here are some ways to gamify your store credits program:
- Run a tiered store credits program. Gamify the process of upgrading tiers
- Make earning credits fun with the help of gamification. For example, Starbucks offers bonus rewards against challenges and for making a certain number of purchases in a week
- Create loyalty programs with tiers to gamify the experience and nudge customers to participate more often; for example, 3-year, 5-year, 10-year loyalty tiers and reward them accordingly
6. Make store credits a part of your website’s key pages
When you make your Shopify store credits a part of key pages on your website, you automatically improve engagement.
Just how advertisements work, when customers notice the mention of ‘store credits’ on different pages multiple times, they’re bound to get curious, remember it, click on it, and explore it.
What are the best places on your website to mention store credits?
- On all the product pages. Example, earn 10 store credits when you buy this product
- On the home page (on a banner, in a special tab, in a pop up)
- Make store credits a part of the customer account page
7. Retarget existing customers
A study by the Harvard Business Review found that loyal customers become business builders for brands over time. They buy more, pay premium prices, and bring in more customers for you.
This makes your existing customers your most important assets. Assets you should keep engaged.
One way to engage existing customers is by way of retargeting. If your existing customers don’t come to you, you’ll have to chase them down to where they are – on social media platforms, on the internet, etc.
Here’s what you can do:
- Run retargeting campaigns on social media
- Campaigns to remind your existing customers about the store credits feature
- Email campaigns to remind customers about store credits
- Campaigns that include social proof of how other customers have used store credits
8. Personalize the store credits experience
Personalizing rewards programs can give a boost to customer engagement. Consider this statistic: In rewards programs, when personalization is done well, it has 6.4x higher customer satisfaction.
Here are some ways to bring in personalization in store credits:
- Use customer data to create personalized offers. For example, if you have a tiered program, offer personalized incentives that nudge customers to buy more in order to upgrade to a higher tier
- Based on customers past store credits activities and behavior, make personalized offers that are relevant
- Create personalized opportunities to redeem store credits earned
- Use personalization in your store credits communication strategy
9. Tie credits to contests and events
Many customers, especially millennials and Gen z, care more about experience than rewards. So, what if you combined the two – store credits and experiences?
Some of the most exciting ways to engage customers are contests and events. Whether these are online or offline, when you enable customers to earn credit points through them, it boosts excitement and engagement.
Here’s proof: brands gain, on average, 17500 fans through contests and events. They are great engagement boosters, and here’s how you can tie in store credits to contests and engagement events:
- Run online and offline contests to engage customers and offer store credits as the prize
- Make it mandatory for interested participants to sign up on your customer account
- Nudge participants to sign in to their customer account and access store credits to make purchases
- Create different experiences for offline and online events rather than duplicating the experiences
Final words
To run a store credits program successfully, you’d have to first set up the program on your Shopify store.
Explore a Shopify store credits app that helps you increase customer loyalty, boosts sales, and helps you strengthen customer relationships all along the customer journey – Flits store credits.
Install Flits Customer Account Page with Store Credits add-on feature on your Shopify store.
