Are you a retailer looking to implement loyalty programs, and membership cards or create discount offers and coupons for your loyal customers? If yes, then this article is for you. 

The present generation of consumers can be said as the luckiest owing to the options they have in hand for their favorite products in both online and offline stores. On the other hand, retailers have to compete with thousands of other retailers for similar types of products. However, there is a silver line here. If retailers can come up with better strategies for their CRM initiatives, then they can turn the tables around. The high competition also means that there are more opportunities. 

One such great CRM strategy is the implementation of retail loyalty programs. This includes awarding loyalty points to customers with each purchase, membership cards, promotional offers, discounts, and redeemable coupons. Such loyalty programs can help you surge customer engagement and satisfaction and are significant in building your loyal customer base. 

This article discusses how you can implement a robust retail store loyalty program using advanced retail management software with a CRM module. 

Benefits of Implement Retail Loyalty Programs 

Several factors come into play when we discuss the benefits of Loyalty programs in retail stores. However, the most common one is that these retail loyalty programs are proven to drive growth in sales of retail businesses. In fact, a survey result quoted by Nerd Wallet reveals that 69% of retail consumers say their choice of retailer is influenced by where they can earn customer loyalty/rewards program points.

#1 More Repeat Buys and Better Customer Retention

Loyalty points or discount coupons in the first purchase will be a motivator to go and buy from the same store. Suppose a customer buys retail products worth INR 2000 from you and you award the customer with a discount coupon of INR 200 for his/her next purchase within the next three months. The customer will obviously prefer to buy from you only next time to redeem his/her INR 200 worth of free discount. 

Now, in another case, you provide customers with a loyalty card, and a total of 200 points are awarded to them for their first purchase of INR 2000. Customers can redeem these 200 points at any of your store locations across the city. What will they do? Obviously they will come back to redeem their loyalty points. 

#2 Customer Database Creation 

Loyalty programs are an authentic and reasonable way of asking for customer’s personal details like name, email id, and phone number. Otherwise, without any apparent reason, customers will be hesitant to provide their details. 

Retail loyalty programs are a way of thoughtful communication and a way of engagement with customers. 

With loyalty programs as the reason, you can easily collect the customer profile details. Considering the benefits that come with such programs, customers will be more than willing to provide you with the same. This data can be used for personalized marketing via WhatsApp, SMS, or emails. 

#3 Competitive Advantage

If you don’t lure your customers, your competitors will. There are thousands of other retailers who will be willing to use marketing tactics and CRM initiatives to onboard new customers. Remember, in highly competitive retail marketplaces, initial footfalls are like a blessing for the retailers. If you don’t have the system or strategy in place to convert the first footfall into a repeated one, you will get beaten by your competitors. 

Therefore, retail loyalty program implementation can also be seen as a way of gaining a competitive advantage. Create highly customized and lucrative loyalty programs so that your first-time customer will never ever be willing to even know what your competitors offer. 

#4 Increases Average Cart Value

How many times have you purchased a fixed INR 3000 or INR 4000 even when you had bought all that you needed for 2450 or INR 3600? You bought extra items of INR 550 or INR 400 just to avail the benefits that the promotional offer provided only if you bought INR 3K or 4K worth of items. The above is just an example to reveal to you how buyer psychology works.

In general life, no one will buy even an INR 10 item if not required. However, everything changes as soon as you know that an additional purchase of INR 400 will make you eligible for a free item or a free purchase next month for a certain amount. Promotions increase the average cart value of customers and sales revenue for retailers. Research quoted by Forbes article reveals that 39% of customers have made an unplanned purchase just to earn more points or rewards.

#5 Better Inventory Management 

This may seem an odd reason but it is not. Yes, loyalty programs can help retailers better manage their inventory. How? If you have items that sell less or aren’t selling due to any change in market preferences, then you can offer those items for free in promotional campaigns targeted for loyalty enhancement. 

This also comes in handy while selling near-expiring items. Items that are approaching expiry dates but have no chance of getting sold can be offered in bundled products for free. 

Apart from the above, there are other benefits that loyalty programs offer for retailers. 

Encourages word-of-mouth promotions: A customer getting an offer is more likely to tell the story to their social circle, friends, and family. Centering your business planning solely around customer attraction to drive growth in sales is not enough; a retail business also needs to invoke emotions of affinity and relevance in their business partners for the long-term success of their businesses. This practice helps retail businesses gain loyal customers, and, in addition to that, they can also prove to be an advocate for your store and thus can make references of your services to others. 

Cross-selling opportunity: Retailers can cross-sell easily with loyalty programs. For instance, if you buy a table and a table lamp together you will get an additional 500 loyalty points or INR 300 upfront discount. 

So, now it’s time to implement a standard loyalty program for your retail store. The below section will detail how you can use retail management software to implement and manage loyalty programs for your retail store like a Pro. 

Implementing Loyalty Program With Retail Store Software: Process and Benefits

A retail store POS software with CRM features is the best way to implement highly effective and strategic loyalty programs for your retail store business. These software come with features that help you create key loyalty program requisites like loyalty points, memberships, loyalty cards, coupons, vouchers, etc. 

Loyalty Points

Once you set up a loyalty point program using retail software, customers earn points based on their purchase value. The Retail POS software tracks purchases and automatically adds points to the customer’s account. Points can be redeemed for discounts, free products, or other rewards. The Point of Sale (POS) module in retail store software automatically updates loyalty points when they are used or allotted. 

Source: VasyERP customer loyalty ledger

Membership Cards

Membership cards offer your customers a sense of exclusivity and recognition. Retailers can use retail software to generate unique membership IDs. Members can avail of the membership card to get discounts, member-only sales, cashback, and other rewards. Advanced retail POS software provides retailers with the option to issue digital and physical membership cards for an enhanced customer experience. Digital membership cards offer a safety net for customer data in the form of double-factor authentication, and other security measures are also taken care of if customers sign up for digital membership cards. 

Research by PYMNTS study of 2,826 consumers reveals that of the total customers retailers have, 79% have their retail membership. 

Source: VasyERP Membership Creation Form

Discount Offers 

What could be the best possible way to make your customer’s shopping experience satisfying? Nothing can beat the allure of discount and sales offers. Sales and discount offerings are enough to gain healthy customer retention. In fact, 87% of shoppers surveyed by Google/Ipsos, Global, Global Retail Study say a good deal is important to them when deciding which brand or retailer to buy from.

On several occasions, a retail business is required to formulate a loyalty and promotion program strategy to gain traction for the brand. Easily create discount offers that can be applied at checkout based on predefined rules (e.g., buy one get one free, percentage off) with retail store software. You can add or drop products that will carry the discount. You can also decide if the discount will apply to products or the entire bill amount. 

Source: VasyERP Discount Creation Page

Coupon & Vouchers

Retail businesses face issues with coupons and voucher generation; be it for a seasonal sale or a festive season. However, with retail store software, you get inbuilt tools to create digital and printable coupons with unique codes. The integrated POS system can validate coupons at checkout. 

Source: VasyERP coupon utility 

VasyERP’s retail software is tailored to meet your specific loyalty program requirements. Customer needs and preferences vary for every product or service they avail, eg. We provide services across multiple retail market segments; Supermarkets, Grocery stores, Home Appliances, Readymade garments, Fashion Accessories, Departmental stores, Footwear, Sports, Fruits and Vegetables, and many more. VasyERP has all the features for creating robust loyalty programs including loyalty points, memberships, coupons, and discount offers for promotions.

Extended Loyalty Program Benefits With Retail Management Software VasyERP

VasyERP offers a CRM module with retail loyalty program features that can help establish customer’s faith and confidence in your retail business, and accelerate it to new heights. The user-friendly nature of VasyERP will allow you to systemize your loyalty programs and strategies to gain customer loyalty. 

The below features are in addition to those discussed in the previous section. 

Customer Feedback

As a retail business owner, you may have to face challenges while collecting and organizing customer feedback and reviews in one place together. 

Customer-facing problems highly affect the margin of customer loyalty. Customers will quickly switch you if their needs and queries are not met on time. Bad customer experience can also agitate them to write negative comments about your services on the review portals or your Google My Business Profile. The repercussions of this mishap could also hinder other customers from striking a deal with you. 

VasyERP’s ability to manage your customers’ reviews and feedback can influence and improve the retail store experience. Before your retail customer vents his/her anger on any other platform, collect feedback along with the SMS for the invoice sent to them. 

This feature of VasyERP gives you an opportunity to collect feedback easily. Also, it gives you an opportunity to make your customer happy with other compensatory offers or extra loyalty points in case their feedback is poor. 

Customer Communication and Engagement

The biggest reason businesses fail to maintain long-term relationships with their customer base is because they don’t give enough importance to continued customer communication after the initial purchase. 

VasyERP makes it easy for your business to send automated and customized birthday and anniversary messages to your retail customer contacts. 

Your brand name should not appear in the customer’s timeline only when you want to bid and market a new product to them. Create personalized communication with birthday greetings and make them feel valued and satisfied.

Prevent Risk Customers from Getting Churn and Regain Churn Customers

The customers who are visiting your store less frequently (or are in a position of becoming a lost customer) can pose a risk to your business. VasyERP has a customer segmentation feature where you can detect the customers who have not purchased from you in a while. VasyERP’s user-friendly system allows you to identify and categorize the risk and safe customer base. The synchronization of customer contacts helps you to reach them through effective loyalty and promotion programs to prevent them from getting churn. 

With VasyERP’s customer segmentation feature, identify churn customers who have not purchased from you in the last three months. You can provide lost customers with special limited-time offers so that they don’t forget about your retail presence in the market. 

Conclusion

Loyalty Programs help your retail business gain customer retention and loyalty so that they repeatedly come to your store. VasyERP’s retail software empowers all types of retailers (small store owners, mid-sized retail showrooms, and large retailers with multiple branches and chains) to design, implement, manage, and centralize their retail loyalty and promotion programs. 

If you’re a big retail chain and you require professional assistance in launching high-scale programs, one that can find synergy with your large customer base, feel free to contact our team at VasyERP. Our loyalty program retail features in the CRM module help you conveniently devise customer loyalty, marketing, and promotions strategies. We also help you with customer data management.