Currently, the global online fashion market is $759 billion. According to Statista, it is predicted to grow to $872 billion by 2023. This is a clear indication that the online fashion market is growing.
Thanks to platforms like Shopify, brick and mortar stores are easily able to make the digital shift. What’s more, new brands are able to launch their sites in no time.
There’s a huge number of Shopify fashion and clothing stores using the Flits app to offer customer account pages. And we decided to help them out further with the introduction of Store Credits. Store Credits is a paid add-on feature on the Flits app that can help brands run points/rewards programs.
The truth is, when your competitors are offering the best deals and discounts too, you need something to one up them and that’s where store credits come in.
So, let’s tell you why you need the Store Credits feature, how you can get it and make the most of it.
To set up Store Credits on your clothing and fashion Shopify store, you need to install the Flits app for customer account pages first.
How Shopify fashion and clothing stores should use store credits
Offer store credits for newsletter sign up
Email marketing ROI can go upto 4200%. That’s why 89% of marketers use email as the channel to generate leads. To up your email marketing game, you need a strong email list.
One way to grow your email list is by offering newsletter subscriptions. When people subscribe to your newsletter, you grow your email list.
And if you’re wondering why a newsletter, well, it’s the hottest thing right now. You can build a direct connection with your subscribers by sharing fashion trends, tips, what’s new, and more, and even generate sales through it.
But, it’s not easy to get people to subscribe to a newsletter. They’re probably overloaded with emails in their inbox and might not want more. So, you’ll have to give them an incentive to subscribe.
Here’s where you can make use of store credits. Offer store credits to those who subscribe to your newsletter. And here’s how it will benefit you:
- You grow your email list
- Increase revenue
- Engage subscribers through store credits
- You get to share updates via the newsletter
Offer store credits for the first purchase
If you’re an eCommerce marketer, you know what it takes to find new customers. You spend months to find one and just a few seconds to lose them. So, when you finally find a customer, do all that you can to give them a good experience.
Do this: When someone visits your site for the first time, take the opportunity to offer store credits to them in return for their purchase. This offer can help you convert your store visitors to customers.
When customers receive something like points or rewards, it automatically enhances their experience. And that’s why offering store credits is a great tactic to impress first-time customers. Infact, a study backed by Deloitte found that marketers’ investment in customer experience has increased by 70% in the last three years.
Here’s how offering store credits to first-time customers can help you:
- It makes customers feel special, because receiving something free has a feel-good factor attached to it
- It helps you build a long-term relationship with new customers. Since these customers have store credits available, the chances of them returning to your store are higher
- It helps increase sales. Who doesn’t want to shop when they have free store credits available, right?
- You can improve customer engagement through store credit offers
Offer store credits when customers share something on social media
Imagine this – a few customers buy a jacket from your store. They share pictures of it on their Instagram and Facebook accounts. Each of these customers have hundreds of followers. Now can you imagine how many people saw your product. And that too without too much effort from your end.
Social proof and word of mouth is the best marketing tactic. These tactics function on the psychological phenomenon that when we see other people doing something, we want to do the same because it must be worthwhile.
So how can you encourage your customers to share about their purchases on social media? Store credits can help! Offer store credits to them for sharing a social media post about your product.
Here’s how it can help you:
- Your store and products get more visibility
- Your customers get store credits, which means they’re more likely to buy more from your store
- Your social proof increases and thus, new customers and sales
- It improves your authenticity
- You can get user generated content
Here’s one way in which you can ask customers to share posts of the products they buy from your store. Make it clear in your message that they will receive store credits in return.
Example:
Offer Shopify store credits on the ‘next purchase’
You obviously want customers to keep coming back to your store to buy more. One way to make this happen is to offer store credits to customers for their next purchase.
For example, create a campaign for this offer. Send emails, share social media posts, SMS and WhatsApp messages to announce this offer.
This tactic works particularly well for fashion and clothing stores because shoppers tend to stick to brands that create designs of their choice.
But this method might not work so well unless you create FOMO (fear of missing out). So, make the offer time-sensitive, or create urgency. For example, urge customers to avail store credits within the next 30 days or two months. If you don’t create FOMO, you might find it difficult to get customers to shop just for store credits.
Offer Shopify store credits in exchange of a review or rating
Reviews and ratings are a form of social proof. And as mentioned above, social proof is one of the best marketing tactics.
Here are some jaw-dropping statistics that will make you want to ask customers for reviews.
- 9 out of 10 shoppers read reviews before making a purchase. (Oberlo)
- A 1-star increase in rating can increase revenue by 5 to 9%. (Harvard Business Review)
- A product with five reviews is 270% more likely to get sold than a product with no reviews. (Spiegel Research Center)
But collecting reviews and ratings is not easy. Customers don’t have time. They may not want to share their names online. Or they simply aren’t interested.
This is when offering store credits can help you collect more reviews and ratings from customers. Here too, you could make the offer timely. For example, share a review or rate the product within a week to get store credits added to your account.
Offer store credits when customers refer a friend
64% of marketers say that word of mouth marketing is the best form of marketing. People trust it more than other forms of marketing and it’s more likely to drive sales.
And here’s where you can make use of store credits to drive more sales.
Do this:
- Ask your existing customers to refer a friend
- Give them store credits based on the amount for which the referred friend makes a purchase. This is one way to create a foolproof campaign
- Offer the friend who got referred store credits as well, so that they feel motivated to make a purchase
Offer store credits on the customer’s birthday
Customers love to feel special. And what better opportunity than to make them happy on their birthday! Send your customers an email offering store credits on their birthday. This way they’d be motivated to buy more from your store. Matter of fact, a study shows that birthday emails achieve 481% higher transaction rates.
Source: Experian
And you can make it more exciting for them.
- Keep it a surprise till the birthday
- Offer them additional store credits when they make a purchase during a brief time window. Say for example, give them more points if they make a purchase between 10am and 12noon
- Make the benefits proportional to their purchase amount so they’d be enticed to buy more
- If you have a tiered store credits program, offer more points to those on a higher tier
Offer store credits for creating wishlists
Fashion and clothing stores have a lot of activity around inventory. For example, items get sold out, new collections get launched, new verticals get introduced, items are available for pre-orders, etc. To put things into perspective, some fashion brands have as many as 52 micro seasons when they launch new clothing and accessories.
Fashion and clothing Shopify stores also see a lot of items being added to wishlists. A wishlist is a section dedicated to items that customers like and want to buy in future. Shoppers can save the items to the wishlist and buy them later.
You can make use of store credits to encourage shoppers to make use of the wishlist feature.
Here are the benefits of doing so:
- You’ll know which items shoppers are interested in
- You can create personalized marketing campaigns to convert them into sales
- It helps boost customer loyalty
- It increases sales
- It can help bring back lost sales
- Customers can earn credits for adding items to wishlist
- Customers can share their wishlists with their friends
Offer store credits for social login
77% of shoppers consider social login as an important feature. You can offer store credits to shoppers for logging in via their social accounts. And it’s a beneficial feature for both Shopify stores as well as customers.
- It makes login easy and quick for customers
- It helps you retain customers
- You can turn one-time shoppers to repeat customers
- It helps you collect authentic customer data
- You can create targeted social media marketing campaigns
Moreover, most fashion and clothing brands have a vibrant social media presence. So, when you have your customers’ social details, and you know the items that are there in their wishlist, you can create personalized, targeted marketing campaigns to nudge them to make purchases.
Offer store credits on limited edition items
Fashion and clothing is a lot about exclusivity and unique styles. So, when your Shopify fashion store adds a trending item to its inventory, you can use the opportunity to offer store credits around that item.
For example, offer store credits to customers when they buy that particular item. Make it more exciting by offering additional store credits by bringing in gamification. Offer more credit points when shoppers buy it within a specific time frame. Or when customers buy more than one item from a limited edition collection.
Offer store credits on higher purchase value
Many fashion and clothing stores offer store credits when shoppers cross a certain threshold. This is a good tactic to help Shopify fashion stores to increase order value. This way you can entice them to buy more from your store. For example, instead of buying just a pair of jeans, customers would feel motivated to buy more to increase their purchase amount and earn more points in return.
Let’s understand this with the help of the example of Patricia Nash Designs rewards program.
- The brand has a tiered points system
- Higher tiers enable customers to earn more points
Offer store credit for every purchase
A great way to entice shoppers to buy more is to give store credits for every purchase they make. Make them happy every time they buy from you. There are many structures to give credit points, as below:
- 1 point for every dollar
- A fixed number of points with every purchase irrespective of the bill amount
- A specific number of points for different thresholds or bill amounts
Here’s an example:
Final thoughts on Shopify store credits
Store credits are definitely an effective way to increase revenue, drive customer retention, and boost customer engagement and loyalty — you’d agree. And fashion and clothing stores, in particular, can create highly engaging store credits programs for their customers.
For that, you’ll need to first set up store credits on your Shopify store. It works best when you make store credits a part of your customer account page. And that’s the reason why Flits customer account page app offers store credits as an add-on feature.
Get the Flits app today for your clothing and fashion Shopify site and make store credits work for you!
