As anyone in retail would jump at the chance to tell you, increasing revenue can be achieved in a great number of way but the top of that list is by boosting customer loyalty. Brand loyalty is a fascinating and powerful force, which companies and businesses of all types and sizes have been trying to tap into and harness for generations. Today, the contemporary app market is helping increase brand loyalty among tech-savvy retail businesses, by improving the shopping experience for app holders and creating a sense of inclusivity and community.
Each and every one of us is loyal to a certain number of brands and shops; we tend to stick with the same brands of toothpaste, for example, across the entirety of our lives. We know which brand of shoes we consider the most comfortable for our feet, and which ones are the most connected to our personalities and sense of style. We may have a plethora of different supermarkets in our neighborhood, but we tend to return to the same one time after time partly because we feel a sense of loyalty and belonging to the brands we find there. It’s a truly interesting aspect of the modern world and of consumerism, and businesses know without any doubt whatsoever that by increasing loyalty among their customers, the rewards brought about are many and lasting.
How Does Brand Loyalty Increase Revenue?
There are many reasons why brand loyalty increases a company’s profits. The retail industry is deeply invested in this fact, and is constantly seeking ways to enhance the effects of loyalty and reap the benefits it brings.
If you’re owner of coffee shop we have some tips for you to Increase your customers Loyalty and Revenue of your coffee shop. Also we have detailed information of how to increase loyalty and revenue in retail business.
Firstly, by increasing brand loyalty, retail companies can ensure they gain the edge over their competitors in the marketplace. Truly loyal customers stick with their favourite retail brands for years, even decades, and return over and over again to those retailers whenever they need to buy new products. They’re also more likely to spread positive reviews to friends, family, and colleagues, and potentially dissuade those same people from shopping at competing stores or retail sites.
Furthermore, brand loyalty is a process of giving and taking. Give your customers reasons to engage more fully with your retail business, give them the chance to have a more positive, streamlined, and efficient shopping experience, and they will reward your efforts with their commitment to your brand, their money, and their positive reviews and feedback. With a custom app, more and more retail businesses are achieving these goals and boosting customer loyalty, thanks to a handful of essential app features which are ticking all the right boxes.
With all of this in mind, there’s no wonder that custom apps for retail businesses are rocketing in popularity. With the right app, shops and online stores are able to promote their brand, gain more and more loyal and dedicated customers, and spread the news about special offers and new products with the greatest of ease.
At Messapps, we’re seeing an increasing number of requests for retail custom apps on a daily basis, and it’s more than exciting seeing this new trend take off in such a big way. While there are many different features each retail app could potentially contain, and many different benefits each app could bring (depending on the specific nature of the business), there are a small handful of key plus points that should be at the heart of any retail app. These are as follows:
Reducing Waiting Time
Retail customers don’t enjoy waiting in line. In fact, nobody enjoys waiting in line – it’s one of those aspects of shopping which is pretty much universally despised. In this particular factor, retail shopping apps really start to come into their own.
With a custom app, your customers will be able to pre-select or pre-order items (and pay for them too, if they wish), which will result in them skipping the queues and collecting their shopping from a designated collection point. The same app feature could also potential arrange home delivery, if the store in question has the capacity to arrange this.
The result of this is clear: the customers get to make the most of their shopping time by avoiding waiting in long and irritating clues, and the merchant gets to maximize their profits by selling directly through the app and cutting the time taken to serve the client at the till. What’s more, such app features bring a sense of exclusivity and special treatment which loyal customers simply can’t get enough of!
Loyalty Programs
Loyal customers deserve rewards, and loyalty programs and reward schemes are one of the most effective ways to ensure that customers leave the store feeling great, and looking forward to their next visit and shopping experience.
Quite how the loyalty program works is up to the individual client, but the vast majority work as a simple accumulating reward scheme. For example, for each $10 (or $50, or $100 etc) spent in store, the customer receives a certain number of points. Once they’ve hit a set target of points (which can be portrayed in a cool app feature page on a chart, animation, or image of some sort), they can benefit from a cashback reward, or a discount off their next purchase. Other reward schemes work with a ‘buy x amount of goods, get the next one free’ system, where a certain number of purchases leads to a freebie once a target has been reached.
This works brilliantly, because it gives the customer something to aim for. Everyone loves getting money off as a result of their loyalty, and everyone loves getting something for free. Rewards schemes and loyalty programs through apps have shown to be highly effective in boosting revenue and customer loyalty, and app-based systems work so much better than old-fashioned loyalty cards which all too frequently get lost, and need replacing.
Building a Community
Loyal customers love to feel they are connected with their favourite brands. A well-made custom app for any retail business would be sure to include certain ‘community’ aspects – features which open a channel of communication between the store, and the app user. By doing this, the customer has a sense of belonging, and a heightened level of engagement with the app, and by proxy, the retail business itself.
By simply adding a news feed or social media feature to the retail app, that sense of community can be enormously heightened and deepened. This news feed would allow the shop to keep their app users updated about new sales, new products, or new special events and exclusive offers for app users and all of those things will help the customer feel that they have a friendly, more personal relationship with their favourite brand. What’s more, the same kind of features can be used to send push notifications to the app user, meaning they don’t get to miss any important updates, discounts, or sales events etc.
All of these app features and more are sure to increase loyalty, boost sales, and improve revenue and profits across the board. At Messapps, we’re industry leaders when it comes to making custom apps for retail businesses, and much more besides. If you’d like to find out more about what we do and how we could help your retail business, don’t hesitate to get in touch today!