In 2020, e-commerce accounted for 87% of global retail sales, whereas before COVID-19, it was forecasted to be just 64% (1). The global online grocery market is estimated to reach US$ 663.33 billion in 2024, growing at a CAGR of 25.02% for the period 2020–2024 (2). This expected growth is due to the increasing penetration of internet services, rising awareness among consumers, especially millennials, and the constant quest for comfort.

It is evident that there is a certain urgency for retailers to expand their digital presence at a quick pace. This means that retailers need to work on their online acquisition to attract as many consumers online as they lose in physical stores. It also means that optimizing their online customer journey and making it as seamless and smooth as possible are necessary to ensure online users’ comfort and satisfaction. And finally, it means engaging shoppers online — loyalty campaigns fit right into this category.

In the next few years, we’ll witness grocery retailers not only rewarding their customers for shopping in-store and online but also relying on stronger online activation to boost the visibility of their loyalty campaigns and thus consumer awareness and engagement.

How can you achieve that? Read on to discover 6 ideas to activate your loyalty campaigns online.

1. Boost the visibility of your loyalty campaigns through your website

Your website is an important source of traffic and one of the places where your customers either shop or learn about your products, prices, and promotions. Therefore, you should give it considerable importance in activating your loyalty campaigns, just as you do with your in-store activation.

• Dedicate a website or section of your website to the campaign.
• Make it eye-catching and appealing for your customers to prompt them to browse through it.
• Use it to explain the loyalty campaign mechanics and make it irresistible for your shoppers to participate. But don’t stop there!
• Take advantage of this website to offer even more information and benefits to your customers by providing relevant, useful, and interactive content about the theme of your loyalty campaign, the rewards, participating brands, or even other types of partnerships.
• Make sure to mix formats with appealing text, images, videos, games, downloadable resources, and so on.
• Be creative as long as it resonates with your brand’s territory!

2. Promote your loyalty campaigns in your e-shop and your app

Your loyalty campaign is a short-term promotion where you reward your customers every time they spend a certain amount on groceries. Even participating brands could be involved. Therefore, it is also necessary to promote the campaign and its mechanics through your entire website, especially your e-shop.

Think about it. What do you do to kick off a loyalty campaign and ensure your customers know about it in-store? Will you use posters, danglers, standees, bunting, and the like? Moreover, you will not hesitate to deploy point-of-sales materials (POSMs) to maximize your campaign’s visibility and invite shoppers to engage. Why not do the same thing online?

• Publish banners on the homepage of your e-shop and/or app.
• Highlight the campaign in your “promotion” section.
• Promote the campaign on other relevant pages with participating brands or related merchandise.
• Alternate designs, messages, and CTAs to drive clicks and conversion.

It is to be noted that if you sell additional merchandise during your loyalty campaign, ensure that you also give this page enough visibility to drive more online sales.

3. Don’t forget marketing emails and push notifications

How do you communicate with your customers? We’re pretty sure that marketing emails are part of the channels that you use. And if you have an app, you probably already use push notifications. Feel free to explore these channels to activate your loyalty campaigns online as well.

• Prior to the launch, tease about the theme of your campaign and the upcoming promotion. You know how much your shoppers will love it, so build on the excitement!
• Once it is launched, announce and celebrate your loyalty campaign through a dedicated email customized to the colors and design of your campaign.
• Use push notifications to inform users and immediately redirect them to your website or app.

You might also be interested in reading: 9 KPIs to Measure the Performance of a Loyalty Program

4. Add even more incentive with prizes to win or competitions

Quite often in loyalty campaigns, retailers work hand-in-hand with participating brands. So, partner up to offer your customers the chance to win prizes related to the theme or the license of your campaign — a selection of big prizes, a whole lot of small prizes, competitions, and so on. It’s up to you!

Get creative, and you can really maximize your campaign’s virality and user engagement.

5. Amplify your loyalty campaigns on social media

Where are your shoppers today: TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube? Probably on at least one or two of these. You need to make your presence felt where they are and adapt to the trends they watch and follow. By doing so, you will speak your audience’s language, and the message will spread even more. So what can you do to activate your loyalty campaigns online through social media platforms?

• Create a social media calendar for the entire duration of the campaign: Use the visual identity and components of your loyalty campaign to design organic posts that celebrate it on your own social media pages. And shout loud about your campaign!
• Dare to entertain and to engage! Alternate designs, messages, and CTAs to drive clicks and conversion and make sure you play with your posts’ formats: images, polls, videos, GIFs, links, and the like. Make them as interactive and engaging as you can!
• Don’t think that sharing one post early in the campaign is enough. You can’t reach all of your followers with a single post. So, multiply them during the entire duration of your campaign – increase your reach and build up interest in the campaign.
• Find fun and playful ways to invite your followers to share, comment, and tag to easily gain organic reach.
• Don’t hesitate to promote your posts via social media ads to boost your reach even further.

6. The more, the merrier: Spread the word with influencers and journalists

You know as much as us that social media have the power to amplify your reach. And social media is ruled by influencers. Look into who your loyalty campaign’s audience follows and trusts, and how your campaign resonates with these influencers. Do your campaign fits their content, their values, and will they feel that they can bring value to their followers if they share it? If your answer is yes, then partner up with them and you’ll also gain visibility among their community.

Don’t stop at influencers though. The public still reads the press and informs itself by reading the news, and the journalists who communicate about other types of news related to your activity will particularly like loyalty campaigns or collectible promotions. So, why not draft a compelling press release and involve your network of journalists in your online activation plan as well?

Let’s wrap up!

We shared 6 ideas to activate your loyalty campaigns online that include:

• Web content
• E-shop and app banners
• Marketing emails and push notifications
• Competitions
• Social media
• PR and influencer marketing

The relevance of your plan and your creative touch will, however, make a big difference. It is important that you rely on the creativity of your loyalty campaigns to build online activation plans that will appeal to your audience and support the performance of your campaigns.

Sources:(1) World Retail Congress 2020. (2) Global Online Grocery Market: Insights & Forecast with Potential Impact of COVID-19 (2020–2024) – Research and Markets.