“Loyalty programs are very effective for luxury brands”

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.

An important reason to start with a loyalty program is to prevent a discount-related focus outside of the large sales periods of June/July and January. The loyalty program gives great value back to those we want to give something back to – throughout the year.

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.