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Merete og Magnus Beckman BMP Paleet Diller

“It is absolutely crucial for us that the loyalty program is fully synchronized with POS, e-commerce, SMS and email.”

The store aims to be Norway’s best provider of service and also offers personal shopping as a free service. We interviewed General Manager Merete Beckman and the Chairman of the Board Magnus Beckman about their experiences since the launch of Diller in February 2023.

Why did you start a loyalty program?

We had a different customer program before that didn’t work so well. We were contacted by Diller and were open to something better. The complete package from Diller, with integration to the online store and the cash register system from Front Systems, as well as with SMS and email functions that are completely synchronized, was a huge improvement.

Why did you choose Diller?

Synchronization is the be-all and end-all! What we had before had no integration, so we ended up with separate systems that worked on their own, but not together. That didn’t give us as much return on the work we put in.

Having everything on one platform was absolutely essential. In addition, the price of Diller is very reasonable. The previous solution had very high startup costs and a long termination time.

Also, for us to be satisfied as customers, we need to be followed up, and that’s what Diller is good at. We are very satisfied with the support we get from Ekin in the Diller team.

What do you regard as the most important benefits of a loyalty program?

Customers feel that they get something back from us, and they are pleasantly surprised when they have a coupon waiting for them. The 15% welcome discount is also very enticing for new members. Customers earn bonus points and get a lot back when they shop with us regularly. We have many competitors, and our main goal is for members to be loyal and come to us because of our good service.

The birthday coupon also elicits a very positive response. We find it important to inform customers about the birthday gift, because after we started reminding them to enter their birthday, many more are using the coupon, and we notice that they are happy about this gesture from us.

How do you recruit new members?

We always ask at the checkout if they want to become a member and have posters with QR codes in the fitting rooms and at the cash register. We ask for phone numbers when they pay, and then they are automatically registered in Diller if the number is not registered before. We hear that customers receive an SMS message, and then we tell them about the customer program and the benefits. They can then choose whether to activate the membership, and they have the receipt with us regardless.

How does your loyalty program work?

We primarily use the customer program for discounts, such as celebrations, campaigns, seasonal sales or sales launches. We send SMS messages to all members so they get the message before anyone else – that makes the program more exclusive for our members. They get a head start. We have a bonus system that rewards customers that shop often with us.

We also use SMS to inform about Mid Season Sale, and then it is only those who receive the SMS who know about the sale, because nothing is shown in the store. You have to show the received SMS to get the discount. This also works very well, and our members appreciate this benefit.

How important is it that Diller is integrated into the POS and online store?

This is absolutely crucial, and we would not have had a customer club without integration and synchronization! It is also important that GDPR is in order, and we got that well in place with Diller.

What do you see for the future?

Earlier this year, we were hacked on Instagram and lost all 14,000 of our followers – very unfortunate! We therefore need to build up a new page and follower base and we see that now we are getting more active and engaged followers. We use Instagram to profile By Malene Birger and bring new customers into the store. After the hacker attack, we also see that it is absolutely necessary to have control and own our own marketing channel, as we do with Diller.

It is important to use the loyalty program correctly – and remember to use it! Diller as a concept, with everything on one platform, is great; email, SMS, purchase history and bonus accumulation are all in one place.

When we started with Diller, we had around 8,000 members, and just a little over a year later, we have increased to over 13,000 members. We are very pleased with this, as we after all have one, family-owned store. Our goal is to increase the membership base by 3,000 new members per year going forward. We look forward to the continuation!

Diller® – the loyalty platform that has everything you need. Easy, intuitive, affordable and profitable.

The Diller® loyalty platform helps small and medium-sized businesses increase their competitiveness by getting customers to shop more, and more often. This saves costs and increases the lifetime value.

Diller® is a smart solution for companies that do not have a large marketing budgets, but still want to increase sales. Marketing is expensive, and a loyalty program offers huge savings because you do not spend precious funds getting new customers into the store and webshop.

With a good loyalty program, you can convert single sales to repeat sales and get much better customer dialogue.

“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.

Diller® – the loyalty platform that has everything you need. Easy, intuitive, affordable and profitable.

The Diller® loyalty platform helps small and medium-sized businesses increase their competitiveness by getting customers to shop more, and more often. This saves costs and increases the lifetime value.

Diller® is a smart solution for companies that do not have a large marketing budgets, but still want to increase sales. Marketing is expensive, and a loyalty program offers huge savings because you do not spend precious funds getting new customers into the store and webshop.

With a good loyalty program, you can convert single sales to repeat sales and get much better customer dialogue.