Best Practices to Activate Your Loyalty Program In-Store
Why should you activate your loyalty program in-store?
You already heard that e-commerce has seen a rapid growth over the past few years. It is evident that there is a certain urgency for retailers to expand their digital presence at a quick pace and activate campaigns online. However, the secret to success lies in both online and offline activation. What does it mean? If you want a successful loyalty program, you should create an engaging experience for your customers in-store.
A loyalty program is not only a great marketing tool to invite, engage and connect with customers, but also a great way to communicate about your brand values and goals. A study confirmed that even today, in-store communication still has the strongest influence on customers’ purchasing choices and shopping behavior (Decision Analyst). Hence, investing in an in-store activation can boost the visibility of your campaign, and increase consumer awareness, excitement and engagement.
Keep reading and learn how to engage your customers in your campaign and to activate your loyalty program in-store.
How to create a buzzing in-store activation?
1. Design your in-store customer journey
The customer journey is all about the experiences that your shoppers go through while shopping at your store, from the start until the end of their visit. So, ensure that your customer journey highlights your campaign and introduces it to your customers at the right moment. Additionally, your customers need to be reminded of your campaign during their whole journey.
- Introduce the campaign at the entrance of your shop: your customers will be well informed, and it can also increase footfall
- Make your campaign visible at strategic spots of your shop, along the path of the customer journey in the store
- Decorate your store with the theme of the campaign to create a highly engaging atmosphere
- Offer an efficient checkout where customers can easily collect the rewards or stamps
- If that’s your case, make sure the self-checkouts can also offer a solution for the reward redemption
2. Invest in impactful Point of Sales (POS) and displays
A variety of tactics can be used to create a visual activation, but POS and displays are more common and efficient in attracting the attention of customers during their in-store visits. By creating visual stimuli, you can increase shoppers’ awareness of the campaign, spike their curiosity and desire to acquire the rewards and merchandise items.
- Make your campaign visible in your store with different displays: front-of-store, floor graphics, end-of-aisle, animated shelves and many others
- Invest in a strong and impactful message about your loyalty program and ensure it is appropriate to your target audience
- Create engaging displays your customers can interact with, such as playing a game or sharing a picture on their social media
- Showcase the rewards in a fun way and make sure they can see the complete lineup of the campaign
3. Combine experiences using all your channels
For a highly impactful campaign, you can combine experiences using different methods. The more your customers see your campaign activations across channels, the more they are curious and want to be a part of it. For those customers who are already in your store, you can stimulate them to see your activities in multiple ways.
- Advertise the campaign in the printed magazines and weekly folders offered in-store
- Promote the loyalty program with additional bonuses, coupons or customer cards
- Combining online channels with in-store activation can be a plus! You can make use of QR codes or augmented reality solutions to create a more engaging experience across channels, and link it to your e-shop
- If you have self-scanning or app solutions that can be used in your shop, ensure they remind your customers about the campaign
You might also be interested in reading: 6 Ideas to Activate Your Loyalty Campaigns Online
4. Promote events and bring customers to your store
Nothing can be more effective than making your customers visit your store, both existing and new ones. With your loyalty program activation, make sure to invite and provide an engaging experience that they will remember for a long time. You can do that by:
- Celebrating the launch of your campaign in-store, with special rewards or an event that is aligned with the campaign theme
- Organizing swap events in which your customers can exchange their collectibles and interact with each other
- Offering special action days, in which they can win special items of the campaign’s lineup or collect extra stamps
5. Place your merchandise in the spotlight
A good in-store activation can make your merchandise items highly irresistible to customers. Showcase the products in different areas of your store to remind the customers that the merchandise items can elevate their collection to the next level.
- Your merchandise is also a great way to decorate your store with the campaign theme!
- Let kids and adults be inspired by your merchandise items by strategically placing them thereby increasing their visibility.
- Ensure that your merchandise items are also promoted through displays, printed magazines and flyers
Don’t forget: It’s all about the experience
Loyalty campaigns and customer journeys have one important thing in common: they are all about experiences! This means that your supermarket needs to provide the shoppers with a uniquely engaging experience. That’s all about learning to activate your loyalty program in-store.
Providing the customers with an unforgettable experience is the key element to ensure that they will engage with your campaign and show loyalty towards your store.