From personalisation to gamification, here are six ways to drive loyalty

Every retailer wants to stand out, but the familiar approaches you’ve used in the past may not always get you the attention you want. That’s where innovative and engaging shopper interactions come in.

If you’re looking for a competitive edge and long-term success, you need to turn your casual shoppers into die-hard fans. To build a loyal customer base, there are some tried and tested membership engagement approaches that can keep your shoppers coming back and waiting for your next move. These are ways to inform, curate, share, build, inspire or even play. 

Let’s dive in. Here’s a quick cheat-sheet on how to build a community, offer value, and encourage your shoppers to become repeat customers and fans.

1. Inform: Give expert access 

Become a trusted source of information. The ‘inform’ approach involves providing expert access to information. This can include independent reviews of products and ‘best of’ lists conducted by subject matter experts. One example of this approach is the membership models used by Choice.com, Wirecutter, and RTINGS.com. These companies provide trusted sources of information that save consumers’ time by quickly sorting through the vast amount of available information. 

For a retail brand, this approach can involve offering in-depth product reviews and comparisons or creating helpful buying guides for different product categories. 

If you’re looking to establish your retail brand as a trusted source of information, providing expert reviews and recommendations to your members, this may be the approach for you. As members come to rely on your expertise, brand loyalty and increased sales will follow.

2. Curate: Be hyper-personalised

People like to feel noticed, known and valued. The ‘curate’ approach involves offering hyper-personalised content based on a customer’s interests and preferences. Examples of this approach include Netflix, TikTok and Spotify – all brands that offer personalised recommendations based on a user’s viewing or listening history. 

Retailers can use a curated model by collecting product recommendations based on a customer’s purchase history or browsing behaviour, or offering personalised promotions or discounts based on preferences. Just check out Temu, a discovery-based shopping app that offers users a personalised feed of recommended and relatively inexpensive products, in addition to searchable categories of products.

Temu’s model is great for brands looking to create a personalised experience for their members and tailoring their offer to each member’s individual preferences and tastes.

This can help build a sense of exclusivity and make members feel valued, increasing their loyalty to the brand. Making sure your suggestions are curated will protect customers from being bombarded or overwhelmed – and make them more likely to be receptive to what you have to say.  

3. Share: Be a close contact

If you’re looking to create a sense of community among members, why not provide a space where customers can discuss products, share reviews and ask for recommendations? 

The ‘share’ approach involves creating a close-knit community of members who can engage in intentional conversations with like-minded individuals. Geneva, Discord, Slack, and Facebook groups all use this model, with great success. The key to this approach is having a neutral space to bring people together – like meeting at a park or a bar in the real world.

By creating an online platform for members to engage in conversations and connect with like-minded individuals, your brand can foster a sense of belonging and increase the likelihood of repeat purchases. This community can be a small one, such as a network of your top 30 customers. These people are engaged with your brand and want to help shape its path forward – a small and intimate network can give them a space to do that, while feeling like a chat with close friends.

4. Build: Be a virtual network

The ‘build’ approach may be ideal for a retail brand looking to create a sense of ownership and participation among its members. This approach involves creating a virtual network or ‘digital co-op’ using blockchain technology to co-ordinate, make payments, and vote on group decisions. Examples of this include Friends With Benefits, DAOs, and ConstitutionDAO. 

The classic example of a build membership model in retail is a loyalty program. Reward customers for making purchases or referring friends, and make sure those rewards are shared among all members of the program. 

By using a digital co-op or blockchain to co-ordinate group decisions and payments, the brand can give members a sense of control and shared ownership in the brand’s success. We see this model repeatedly in start-ups, where founders aim to foster a democratic foundation to their brand – but how can it be used in a retail space? Why not take your top 30 most loyal customers and give them another kind of incentive, such as helping to build a branch of your new brand or a new offering? This could be an alternative focus for groups or surveys – getting real-time insights from your loyal customers as to what they want to see from your brand, and letting them have a stake in its success. 

5. Inspire: Encourage collectors 

A classic example of the ‘inspire’ approach is digital scrapbook Pinterest – but there are other instances, such as Landing.space and Shuffles. 

This approach involves curating and organising visuals for personal inspiration and sharing with a community of like-minded individuals. A retail brand may choose the inspire approach to tap into its members’ creativity and provide a space for self-expression. 

By creating a platform for members to curate and share visuals that inspire them, the brand can build a sense of community and tap into members’ emotional connection to the brand. In the retail space, you could create a platform for customers to create a visual look-book or mood board for different product categories, feature customer photos and reviews, or leverage user-generated content to showcase how customers are using the brand’s products in their daily lives.

Experiments with apps and platforms that are new in this space are just that – experiments. If the app intersects with a similar audience, why not try to see what your brand could look like on that platform? Seeing a brand pop up and experiment shows the human behind the brand. You don’t have to invest in a huge strategy, but your strategy should be leaving room to dabble in new, inspiring and creative platforms. 

6. Play: Use gamification 

Why not make it fun? The ‘play’ approach involves using gamification to make the membership experience more fun and engaging. 

By using gamification to incentivise purchases or create immersive experiences, the brand can increase engagement and make shopping more enjoyable for members. This may be a good fit for a retail brand looking to create a fun and engaging experience for its members.

Gamification doesn’t have to be a huge immersive platform – think Wordle, or arcade-style games like Candy Crush. Don’t think of gamification as just competition and reward. It’s also about having fun and making a game out of things – which we all need right now.

For a retail brand, this approach could involve creating a mobile app that rewards customers for completing certain actions, such as making a purchase, leaving a review, or sharing a product on social media. Brands could also create fun and interactive experiences, such as scavenger hunts or challenges, that encourage customers to engage with the brand in a playful way.

Stand above the crowd

So, there you have it. The retail market is fierce, but by adopting these six membership engagement approaches you can stand out from the crowd and build a strong and loyal customer base.

Whether you’re looking to share expert information, get personal with hyper-personalisation, create a sense of community, offer virtual networks, provide inspiration and curation, or just make your customer experience fun, there’s an approach that can work for your brand.

By taking the time to engage and connect with your customers in fun and meaningful ways, you’ll be able to increase sales, foster loyalty and stay ahead of the game in the ever-changing retail landscape.

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