Linestore is Holzweiler’s multi-brand flagship store at Fornebu S outside Oslo. The famous architecture firm Snøhetta designed the exclusive 450 m² store, previously known as Holzweiler Multi Store. Linestore also has the online store linestore.no. The Holzweiler Group has shops in Oslo, Bærum, Stavanger, Bergen, and Copenhagen.

Why did you start a loyalty program?

The main reason is that we want to give something back to regular, loyal customers, while at the same time better understand customers’ purchasing patterns. It is key for us to be able to adjust the information we send to our members with their purchase history and preferences.

From my previous experience at NET-A-PORTER, we saw that as much as 90% of the revenue came from returning customers. We learned that a good relationship with loyal customers was incredibly important. My goal is for us to achieve something similar with Linestore.

Loyalty programs are very effective for luxury brands, because customers who shop a lot can earn a good bonus. We want to give members a chance to be rewarded well when they shop a lot and often with us.

The loyalty program will also be an incentive to head out to Fornebu S, which is located just outside Oslo. We have many regular customers locally, but we also want to attract customers from larger parts of the Oslo area.

How did you hear about Diller?

We were in talks with several providers of loyalty programs, but they were too extensive and had extremely high prices. It would have been difficult to calculate a sensible ROI on such an investment.

However, our POS provider Front Systems told us of an integrated solution also working with Shopify. We were then introduced to Diller.

We quickly saw that Diller as a very interesting solution, since we could easily segment by gender and age, which is an important feature for us. We also found that Diller is super easy to use, affordable in price, and that the system works great in both the cash register and our webstore.

How did you get started with Diller?

Holzweiler has used Front Systems since 2014, while the CEO and purchaser have used Front Systems from the very beginning in 2004. We have their POS system in all our shops. It’s a very good cash register system, and their online solution with login and control is awesome.  They also have RFID tags on products, so that we can scan the code at checkout. The web portal provides reports, history, and transactions.

After we had decided on Diller, we set up an onboarding meeting, and were quickly up and running. It was a very smooth and straightforward process. 

What do you see as the main advantages of loyalty program?

Undoubtably the most important is being able to reward loyal customers who shop regularly, so that they come back to our store instead of shopping with others.

There is a strong competition in the fashion industry, and we want good customers to get great benefits and be hence be motivated to return.

With a loyalty program we get to know the customer much better and can create relevant campaigns and content for them. This is really important. We avoid the mid-season sales and can reward those who choose us over time.

How do you recruit new members?

First we transferred the GDPR compliant customers from our database to Diller. We sent them an SMS and already over 200 customers have consented to becoming members, just after launching the program.

The most important job starts now, with recruiting new members. We register new members at checkout, and when we ask thme whether they want to join, no one really declines. It’s just important to remember to ask them! We will also put up a poster at the cash register to remind customers that we have a loyalty program with great benefits.

We give a 15% discount on the first purchase to new members. What’s interesting is that we can see directly that it leads to a larger shopping cart. We had a customer who ended up buying an item in two colors, because she thought it was such a good offer with the 15%.

What do you think of the collaboration with Diller?

Very, very good! It’s been really easy to set up, and the support from Diller is awesome.  I have worked quite a lot with online stores before, and the team at Diller provides good input all the way. I find that they are not “order recipients”, but rather advisors who work with us. They are solution-oriented and provide great recommendations.

What do you think of the collaboration with Front Systems?

It’s fantastic. We get good help from both Lars and Haakon and everyone at Support!

How important is it that Diller is integrated with the POS system?

It is simply alfa and omega, because what happens at the cash register is key. It is a very smooth process, both in the stores and online.

How important is it that Diller is integrated with the webstore?

It’s essential. The integration between Diller and Shopify is seamless and good. This is absolutely necessary for us.

For example, if we have a customer who has bought a gift for a family member, we can simply look up the customer and all the purchases will show, with sizes and. It enables us to provide good customer service. It’s also easy to give our customers recommendations based on previous purchases, and this often leads to additional sales.

What do you expect going forward?

We hope that we will take big steps in terms of revenue increase, and that we will have many active members. It is important that we spend enough time and resources to achieve our goals now from the start. We are very excited. Now it’s all about recruiting new members!

We believe that analyzing purchase data over time will become important, and that it is absolutely necessary to have good segmentation. We want to send SMS messages that are tailored to segments instead of campaigns on menswear to women and vice versa. An SMS from us should be relevant and interesting.

People are members everywhere, but we have something that is unique in our segment. We want to offer an exciting loyalty program to be a member of, which gives loyal customers great benefits.

We plan to run in-store events to showcase new products and collections, and for example let members shop 7-10 days in advance during our sales periods. Loyal members should also have access to in-demand items earlier than others.

How have you set up your loyalty program?

We have built up a bonus program with Gold/Silver/Bronze levels, so that we give back in the best possible way for different levels of purchases with us.

We want to do things a little differently. On Black Friday, for example, we do our own thing – no offers or discounts on everything, but rather  a good discount coupon for everyone who has become a member of the loyalty program since we launched it.

We also plan to run competitions, such as member X or Y getting a pair of free shoes. In the fashion industry there are very many players. We want to be top of mind!

What do you think about the combination of physical store and online store?

We have linestore.no webstore, and it is of course very important to make our product range easily available online.

At the same time we have great faith in the personal experience in-store, with good communication at the time of purchase. We have had the same part- and full time employees for 6-7 years, and it means a lot to us that our customers experience continuity. Customers sometimes just come to say hello. Over time it provides both good revenue, high conversion rates, and happy, loyal customers.

Our webstore went live just 3 weeks ago and we will be using the website actively to draw customers to our store. The webstore is therefore a virtual  “look book”.  We invest in marketing both the physical store, webstore, and loyalty program going forward, so that we get at great start of the program with many new members.

Olivenlunden 1830 is a gastronomic specialty store for olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and culinary products from the Mediterranean. It is a nationwide chain with 13 stores in Norway. We interviewed Marketing Manager Lene Sagenes to learn about their experiences with the start-up of a new loyalty program.

Why did you start a loyalty program?

For many years we have had a non-digital loyalty program. We found it difficult to follow up and didn’t think it worked very well. We therefore needed to renew ourselves and get better control of our customer base.

We have always known that a good loyalty program is essential to be able to communicate with customers to a greater extent, and to be able to adapt the communication so that it is more relevant. It was long over due!

What made you make the decision to make the change?

I started working at Olivenlunden in March 2021, and then we began looking into it. We went into a process with multiple vendors to see who could help us.

We chose Diller because they were a good fit to our size in addition to the fact that the program has very good functionality. We focused on collaboration and consulting, because it’s important to work with someone who can help us in the process of building a really good loyalty program.

Several suppliers presented their solutions, but with some of them we would become a very small customer. With Diller, we felt very well taken care of. Diller had lots of good input and advice on how to help us.

What do you see as the main benefits of a loyalty program?

For us it is to be able to adapt the communication and make it more relevant. In our industry, competition is intensified, because now you even can get olive oil at the pharmacy and in many other places.

We see that there are competitors coming in several industries, and we need to do what we can to keep our loyal customers. We therefore want to reward those who shop with us, and with a loyalty program we can achieve exactly that.

In our stores we always let customers taste our products, because with us you will get an experience of a generous concept. The fact that we can now also reward the most loyal customers fits like a glove with the concept. We do what we can to stand out positively!

How important is it that Diller is integrated with the cash register?

It’s very important. We want as few systems as possible, and with the integration with PCKasse we felt confident in the process of introducing a loyalty platform.

.. and how important is it that Diller is integrated into the online store?

It is equally necessary that the loyalty program is fully integrated with the online store, which we have built on WooCommerce. We used to have an outdated website, but after we launched a new website just before Christmas in 2021, we look forward to taking full advantage of all the new systems and processes. Now the basics are in place, and we look forward to developing this further!

How do you recruit new members?

We mainly recruit members in stores. Every time someone shops, you’re asked to join. The website will eventually become an important recruitment channel for us as well.

In the past, we have given new members a welcome gift when they sign up, but we want to change the concept and are in the process of thinking about our new loyalty program for both the store and the online store. It should be a really good thing for customers to become a member of our loyalty program.

What kind of results have you seen so far?

You’re always excited before the launch of a new system. What immediately came to light when we moved to a digital loyalty program was that it was very well received by the stores, because it is so easy to use. That was the first thing we noticed, and it was a very good launch. We also saw that the employees became eager to recruit, and that the customers wanted to become members.

We have seen a tremendous increase in the number of new members per month since we switched to Diller. We already have over 20,000 members in our customer base, and we enlist 1,500-1,700 members per month without any special promotions or activities.

What we’ve done is compare the stores to track the number of members per store. In the beginning, there was a big difference between the best recruiters and those who did not have much focus on it. Now we see that all the stores are recruiting consistently well.

Our Digital Manager will spend a lot of time with follow-up and structure going forward. Segmentation, analysis, and custom communication are some of the keywords. One of the company’s most important goals this year is to develop the loyalty program.

Do you have examples of successful campaigns?

Recruiting new members has gone very well, and it gives us a good foundation for developing custom campaigns for our members.

We look forward to using SMS campaigns, as it is such an effective channel for communication and response. I see for myself that I respond very quickly when I receive SMS.

We also have good potential for in-store events, and we have done this a lot in the past. Then we invited good customers “over the counter”. Now we can do this in a much better way. For example, we can hold olive oil courses, balsamic courses or invite to relaunch products. Now through data analysis we can easily see who are our most loyal customers. Then we can invite exactly them to courses or pre-tasting and so on. This will be fantastically good going forward.

How did you hear about Diller?

It was through PCKasse and our checkout supplier Totall, where we received a recommendation for Diller. In addition, our Digital Manager Krissa had heard of Diller.

What do you think of your collaboration with Diller?

We find that the Diller team is very helpful and positive, and it only takes a few minutes from asking for something until we get an answer! It’s really good follow-up. We would like for Diller to be advisors in our further journey to develop the loyalty program, and we feel well taken care of.

What are your plans going forward?

This year the plan is to establish the new tools, further develop the loyalty program and the program we offer the members, as well as to reinforce the website. We want to optimize the work we have done so far. We have a good team in place and good tools, so this will be fun.

We at Olivenlunden want to get even more people to discover our products and to get our story out. It hasn’t come out clear enough. We work closely with our suppliers and manufacturers. We have a lot of nice things to talk about, and we want to be even more visible.