Retail Loyalty Programs Simplified for 2009

Secrets of Building Loyalty Now and for the
Future

In these challenging times, retailers face these key
issues that are critical for long term growth and
actual survival:

-Building traffic in a weak economy
-Converting as many walk in customers to buyers
-Building the average sale
-Building loyalty and repeat visits by customers

In the early 1990's Loyalty Programs were the
latest rage. Every retailer jumped on the bandwagon
and offer an array of programs making customer
wallets and purses bulge with slick plastic loyalty
program cards.

By the late 1990's, the glamour of many of these
Loyalty Programs fizzled. Customers balked at the
complexity of many programs and their bulging
wallets full of these cards and opted out of most
of them. Beyond that, many were designed to
deliver mediocre rewards after a long drawn out
purchasing timeline by customers.

Today, customers want earlier gratification and
simplicity. They don't want all those loyalty cards
weighing them down either.

The best Loyalty Program can be set up very
easily with a high acceptance level from today's
customer:

Offer a percentage discount coupon with every
purchase. You can also add an expiry date if
you want a customer to return within say 30
days of their original purchase. Most Point of Sale
retail systems easily accommodate a percentage
discount on a single or multiple purchase.

There are some distinct advantages of a percent
discount coupon to build loyalty:

1) It's simple and requires no cards, points,
extra software or administration
2) You can set up a program in minutes.
3) If the coupon is the size of a bill, they can
easily fit in a purse or wallet. It's not bulky
and they see it every time they pull some
cash out of their wallet.
4) By creating an expiry date you can control
when a customer is motivated to return to your
store(s).
5) Customer's see this type of program as instant
gratification. Come back to the store, show the
coupon and they benefit instantly.
6) A percentage discount motivates customers to
buy more. The more they buy, the more they save!

I've created a real simple MS Word template that
you can edit as you wish. Then print off discount
coupons with your store's name and phone number
in the box provided. They print out the same size as
a bill, and you can enter an expiry date of your choice.
At this date, you may want to have them expire on
the 25th of December to motivate customer to
return for their final Christmas shopping. You can
also consider the end of January if you want to
attract repeat customers in the slower January
buying period. Lastly, employees can sign the
coupon when issuing them to authenticate them
and prevent fraud. You can also change the
percentage discount to whatever you like but
keep in mind that the coupon should apply to
all goods even if they are on sale. Keep it simple!

The simple template is available for any retailer
to customize and print out. Just email me at
ronp@retailinsitute.ca and launch an effective
loyalty program that customers will readily
embrace. Build repeat traffic!

 

TAKE ACTION TODAY

1) Set up your store to offer a percentage
discount coupon on return visits.
2) Determine a policy on percentage
offered and expiry date.
3) Decide if sale goods will be subject to
an additional discount with the coupon. If
not you'll need to state this on the coupon.

HANG IN THERE!