The new year comes as a new beginning. We prepare for it by making resolutions, hoping for a fresh start. But the enthusiasm to make a change in life dissipates, and we discontinue the resolutions after a while.
But when it comes to your business, this is not a risk an entrepreneur can take. To achieve good results, you have to be consistent and disciplined. Devise a strategy in advance and put efforts into implementing the same.
If there is one thing that all businesses need to do this year, it should be opting for a long-term reward program for their customers. Certain aspects of a business need constant, conscious, and continuous efforts. Rewarding your customers is one of them.
Let’s look at what you need to do to set up a reward program.
Things to keep in mind for a reward program
- Analyze your products: The first thing you need to do is take note of the products you are selling. Are they wholesale or retail? Are the products perishable and need to be bought again and again? Are the products a one-time investment for a long time like laptops/tv etc.? Do the products depend on the fashion industry?
- Analyze your customers: The next thing to do is see how your customers behave. Do they respond better to monthly rewards or surprise rewards? Do they prefer combination offers or gifts? Yes, this will need some experiments, but merchants should formulate a long-term reward strategy keeping a these points in mind.
- Profit margin: Rewarding your customers does not mean you need to bleed out your revenues. There should be a balance between your profit margins and the reward margin.
Types of Reward Strategy
Rewards strategy can be of various types
- Rewards based on the customer journey: Rewards based on customer journey would entail rewards for signing up, subscriptions, placing an order, referral etc. It means you push your customers to take certain necessary steps by rewarding them.
- Rewards based on occasions: Rewards based on occasions would imply that you can make a rewards strategy based on events. For example, Christmas rewards or birthday rewards or anniversary rewards etc.
- Tier based rewards: Tier-based rewards mean that you can categorize your customers based on their purchases. Customers can be divided into groups such as gold, silver, platinum etc. (In Shopify, this option is available only for Shopify plus users with Shopify flow)
Kickstart your 2022 with Flits reward program
Flits reward program module is simple yet effective. We have added multiple sets of rules that will take only a few minutes to get you started with your reward program strategy.
Flits has a comprehensive reward program that will enable you to reward customers based on their journey and specific events. The best part of our reward program is that it is not based on a points system but credits, where 1 credit is equal to 1 respective currency. ( 1 credit = 1 dollar/1 rupee/1 pound etc.)
Due to the uniqueness of our reward program, few stores also use our reward program to manage their refunds. You can read about the many unique ways our merchants use the reward program in this blog.
Flits reward program gives you a comprehensive module that covers various rules. Let’s take a look at them.
Registration credits –
Customers are often reluctant to sign up due to lack of time or simply because the sign-up process is too long. But rewarding customers can motivate them to sign up and avail credits.
Subscriber credits-
Getting your customers to sign up for your newsletter can help you send them promotional/informative emails about your store. Rewarding them for it adds as an incentive to take the step of accepting newsletters.
Credit on orders-
Rewards should never be limited to just bringing the customer to your store or getting them to sign up; they should continue throughout the customer journey. This ensures that they return to earn more rewards and spend more to use the rewards.
Birthday Credits-
What is better than rewarding your customers on their birthday? People make grand plans on their birthdays and often save up items in their wish lists. You can make their day by offering them a reward.
Monthly credits – In the sea of online stores, your products may get lost; you may need to poke them a bit with rewards to remind your customers. A sweet message telling them they have earned a few credits may nudge them to buy something.
Product review credits- These credits are multipurpose; of course, they reward the customer for taking a step, but they also benefit you in two ways. First- reviews improve product visibility by way of reviews. People generally prefer to give a chance to products with reviews compared to no reviews. Second- it creates trust in your website to run a legitimate business.
Credit for specific products- To promote certain products, you can assign a tag and credit those products.
Credit for adding products to wish list– Wish Lists are a great way to find out what your customers may purchase in the future. You can fulfil their *wish* through the same list by offering rewards for adding products to the wish list.
After reading the above passages, we hope you are convinced about launching a reward program this year. It’s never too late to start making changes, and the first change of this new year could be adding a reward module for your loyal customers. Flits has an extensive module for all your reward program requirements. The options may differ according to the plans purchased.
