Aobot Loyalty Program helps you acquire new customers and retain existing customers using rewards that motivate them to take action that supports your goals.

What Is a Loyalty Program?

Customer loyalty is a customer’s willingness to buy from a brand repeatedly because of positive customer experience, satisfaction, and the value the customer gets from the transaction.

An e-commerce customer loyalty program, or reward program, boosts customer loyalty by providing rewards to customers who frequently patronize the business’ products or positively contribute to the brand. 

The Benefits of Loyalty Programs

It is widely cited that acquiring a new customer costs five times more than retaining an existing one. As an e-commerce business owner, we’re sure you have experienced the difficulty involved in converting a first-time visitor into a buying customer. After dealing with that, we’re also sure you’d like to gain more sales from existing customers.  Here are some statistics that highlight the importance of customer loyalty and the benefits of loyalty programs.  

1. 60% of loyal customers will purchase more frequently from their preferred companies. (InMoment)
2. 65% of a company’s business comes from existing customers and 80% of profits come from 20% of existing customers. (Fundera)
3. Highly-engaged customers buy 90% more often and they pay 60% more per transaction. (Vision Critical)
   
4. A 5% increase in customer retention may lead to an increase in profits of between 25% and 95%. (HBR)
   
5. 52% of American customers will join a loyalty program with a preferred company. (Yotpo)
   
6. 73% of consumers are more likely to recommend brands with good loyalty programs. (Bond)
   
7. 75% of customers said they were likely to make another purchase after receiving an incentive. (Wirecard)
8. Members of loyalty programs generate between 12 and 18% more revenue than non-members. (Vision Critical)
9. Adding a loyalty program to an e-commerce website can increase average order quantity by 319%. (Incentive Solutions)
   

Is a Loyalty Program Right for You?

Loyalty programs do not benefit every business. However, if your business matches the following criteria, you should add a loyalty program to increase profitability:

1. Your customers may place repeat orders for the same or relevant products.
2. You are operating in a niche in which customers are price sensitive.
3. You are operating in a market with several competitors.

Today, most loyalty programs not only retain existing customers but also acquire new customers. Even if you just started your business and have few customers, you can still add a loyalty program to accelerate the growth of your client base. 

Making a Successful Loyalty Program

You can design your own loyalty program using the following steps: 

1. Identify actions you want customers to take.
2. Decide when to reward customers for each action.
3. Decide which rewards are eligible for point usage. 

You will need to choose a reward that is attractive to customers but that does not hurt your profitability. 

Finally, you need to design emails that communicate with customers about their points and rewards.

After studying the COLLOQUY Loyalty Census report, which asked consumers why they joined or left loyalty programs, we’d like to provide the following recommendations: 

To motivate more customers to join your loyalty program:

1. Allow customers to earn points on purchases.
2. Reward products that are relevant to customers or reward discounts if you are not sure what is relevant.
   

To retain more customers in your loyalty program:

1. Make your program easy to understand.
2. Make points easy to earn.
   

Acobot includes a loyalty program feature that not only has all best practices built in, but also increases the sense of urgency by offering time-limited rewards. It delivers a better user experience and more results for its seamless integration with lead generation (loyalty program member acquisition), email marketing, and discount coupons.

How Acobot Loyalty Program Works

Acobot’s Loyalty Program is fully automated. You don’t even have to set it up. To enjoy the benefits of the loyalty program, simply enable it with a single click. 

Immediately, customers can start earning points as follows: 

1. Earn 10 points for each visit of the website, up to 10 points a day.
2. Earn 50 points for each purchase

Customers can redeem points for discount coupons as follows: 

1. 25 points for a coupon draw
   

For each draw, Acobot creates a coupon with a random discount percentage. That percentage falls between the maximum discount percentage and 50% of it, which you defined for the Discount Coupons feature. 

Acobot invites customers to join the loyalty program as part of its engagement. That way, you do not need to add a banner or button to your website for the loyalty program – it uses loyalty rewards for lead generation, so you will get more sales leads and new customers.

Summary

You can use a loyalty program to increase customer retention and improve profitability. You can design a loyalty program in three simple steps. Easy to understand policy, easy to earn points, and relevant rewards are key to the success of a loyalty program. Acobot includes a fully automated loyalty program that allows you to grow your business using loyalty rewards right away, with a single click.