Customer loyalty in retail is what every brand strives for – having customers who love your store so much that they shop with you time and time again, spend more, and spread the word to others about how great you are. Customers with a high lifetime shopping value, and who generate far more in revenue than it costs to acquire them in the first place.
The stats on customer loyalty in retail speak for themselves, making it abundantly clear why it comes at the top of so many retailers’ ‘must do’ lists:
Customer loyalty in retail is based on the experience you provide – and one of the most influential factors is your loyalty program. Having a loyalty program is proven to keep customers shopping with you – in fact 77% of consumers are more likely to stay with a brand that has a loyalty program.**
How can retailers use retail POS technology to elevate customer loyalty
The most effective way of enhancing customer loyalty with POS is through a loyalty program. But not all retail POS technology offers the same loyalty functionality. So here we take a look at the four steps to POS-driven customer retention and loyalty.
1. Single view of customer – across all channels.
A shopper is the same person whether they buy online or in your store, and they want to be treated that way – for example, if they earn loyalty rewards online, they want to be able to redeem them in-store. POS systems for customer loyalty that are integrated across all channels, based on single view of the customer, contribute to customer loyalty in retail.
2. Create a POS-driven customer retention approach that is right for your business
There are many ways to drive customer engagement through POS, and if you use flexible loyalty programs and POS technology, you can build a program that is exactly right for your business. Key questions as you plan your POS solutions for customer retention include:
- Do you want to offer rewards as points or currency, and will you have bonus rewards – on a birthday, or for recommending a new member, for example?
- How will shoppers redeem their rewards, and will any items (such as sale items) be excluded from the program?
- Do you want to have a tiered membership program, and/or offer family membership?
- What will be the expiry rules for rewards?
- Will your POS-driven customer retention program include other subsidiary brands?
- How will you manage customer engagement through POS? What promotions do you want to run – will these be long term, such as total spend, or based on driving short term behaviours and purchases?
To elevate loyalty, ensure that your retail POS technology allows you to tailor the program, and not be boxed in to a ‘one size fits all’.
3. Personalisation with retail POS
Customers want tailored, personalised promotions, based on their purchasing habits and preferences, rather than a generalised offer. Using POS analytics for customer loyalty enables you to offer personalisation with retail POS, designing tailored promotions that truly elevate loyalty.
4. Customer communication.
Personalisation with retail POS technology can elevate loyalty – customers want tailored, personalised messaging. Ensure your retail POS technology allows you to communicate in a range of ways – email, SMS or using geofencing to send a message when they are close to your store.
Retail POS technology – if it offers a full set of loyalty functions and is integrated with analytics, promotions, inventory and sales – can be the key to achieving every store’s goal: customer loyalty in retail.
Can a retail POS technology system help me to protect customer data?
Yes. Your retail POS technology loyalty system holds customer information, and nothing will damage loyalty faster than not protecting it. The legislative requirements vary from country to country (we wrote about this in our recent blog ‘The importance of security in modern retail POS systems’. Some retail POS technology systems can be configured to make it straightforward for you to comply with GDPR and other legislative standards. Ensure that you select a system that includes this option.
Is there an advantage to using cloud-based loyalty programs and POS technology?
Cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) system certainly do have advantages. Your loyalty system can only drive customer retention if it’s always available for your customers to use. A cloud-based SaaS loyalty platform ensures that your customer data is sent to the central system for real time updates, but which can also operate in stand-alone mode if the store is for any reason disconnected from the network. It offers high availability without you having to manage hardware upgrades or maintenance. You can focus on ensuring the best promotions and offers for your customers.
References:-
*https://media.bain.com/Images/Value_online_customer_loyalty_you_capture.pdf
**https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesagencycouncil/2020/01/29/the-value-of-investing-in-loyal-customers/?sh=47fa9ca221f6
+https://www.business2community.com/customer-experience/why-your-existing-customers-are-your-best-customers-02199165
***https://webtribunal.net/blog/online-review-statistics/
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