Discover how Influence.io empowered New Forest Clothing to elevate its loyalty program, enhancing customer engagement & retention strategies effectively.
A loyalty program can work wonders for your online store. With the right initiatives in place, you can boost repeat sales, brand advocacy, and customer retention.
But a lot of merchants feel restricted by their loyalty platform - their programs held back by a lack of flexibility and clunky integrations.
That was the case for New Forest Clothing. So after limited success with Smile.io, it sought an alternative platform to suit its needs.
The brand now runs a successful loyalty program through Influence.io. One that sees high participation, with an impressive 20% redemption rate.
It’s also added our partner app, REVIEWS.io, to its tech stack. Together, these tools power an effective customer engagement and retention strategy.
An online only store, New Forest Clothing knows the importance of a loyal customer base. One that brings consistent revenue, and drives its reputation through word of mouth.
To build that customer base, the brand launched a loyalty program through Smile.io. This brought a good level of success in the beginning. In particular, it drove a big increase in newsletter sign ups, with customers encouraged to subscribe in return for points.
However, 12 months down the line and the team felt it was time to move on. So the search began for a new loyalty platform. One that would help deepen customer engagement and enhance the brand’s loyalty strategy.
Influence.io ticked the boxes. . It gave New Forest Clothing a flexible solution to create a customized, customer centric loyalty program, seamlessly integrated with its Shopify store.
“The price points for certain aspects of Smile.io increase significantly, like the VIP tiering system. That's something we wanted to introduce and something that’s actually been one of the big success stories of using Influence.io. It was just looking to expand, experiment and improve the offering we were giving.” Benji Anker - Marketing Manager, New Forest Clothing.
Loyalty tiers are now central to the ‘NFC Rewards' program. In line with its brand identity, it offers three loyalty levels known as Fawn, Deer, and Stag.
Customers progress through the tiers as they earn more points, gaining access to higher rewards as they do. Top tier members are awarded more points for every pound spent, and get exclusive benefits like early access to sales and free next day delivery.
This tiered system helps the brand attract and retain high value customers. It’s also an effective way to encourage repeat sales and increase average order value (AOV).
In addition to loyalty tiers, the brand uses our digital StampCard feature. Just like a traditional coffee shop loyalty card, shoppers earn stamps for every qualifying purchase. This brings gamification to the program, motivating customers to fill their stamp card in return for rewards.
For program visibility, New Forest Clothing uses the full range of Influence.io widgets - full page, floating and pop-up. These have all been customized with our no-code editor to fit with its Shopify store design and brand identity.
And for maximum engagement, the brand makes use of our Klaviyo integration. This allows it to segment program members based on loyalty tiers, and to use Influence.io events in Klaviyo flows. That means it can send automated, personalized emails to every customer, keeping them engaged with the program and its benefits.
“I think it's pointless having a loyalty scheme with people building up points and then not knowing about them or how to use them. The way Influence.io integrates with our Klaviyo flows, we can send people reminders when they hit a total amount of points, just to let them know that that free shipping or that £5 or £10 off is there waiting for them.”
The switch to Influence.io gave New Forest Clothing a chance to assess other parts of its tech stack. In particular, its review management platform, and how it could better integrate with its loyalty program.
Having been with Yotpo for a number of years, the team felt that it had outgrown the solution. There were a lot of features it wasn’t using, and its review strategy had become stagnant.
So when it switched loyalty platform, it also chose to switch from Yotpo to REVIEWS.io.
The brand now has a new way to encourage positive review content, and at the same time increase customer engagement and loyalty. By using Influence.io and REVIEWS.io together, it can award points to customers for writing a review, and/or sharing photo and video content.
Because the two platforms work so well together, these earn rules are simple to set up and run automatically. It also means the brand can assign different point values to different review content.
For example, customers earn additional points if they submit UGC with their review. This motivates customers to create more engaging and valuable content.
“We saw huge scope to improve our loyalty program and link it in with reviews better. We were looking for an alternative to the reviews platform we were using before and seeing that Influence.io and REVIEWS.io work so well together - that's why we got in touch with you.”
And of course, REVIEWS.io brings their own value to New Forest Clothing’s growth strategy, helping to drive conversions through social proof and product insight.
By collecting review attributes, it's able to give shoppers a more detailed view of the customer experience. For example, it uses sliding scales to display data on fit according to size, value for money, and speed of delivery. It also uses our Review Nuggets widget to highlight the very best review snippets.
And on its homepage, you’ll find an engaging carousel of customer photos, published with our UGC widget.
“The UGC is really effective. It’s something we didn't explore when we were using Yotpo. All the widgets look really nice. Super easy to install and they all integrate seamlessly, just like with Influence.io. There's no fighting with code to get them to look like they fit.”
Switching any part of your eCommerce tech stack can be daunting. You want assurance that:
New Forest Clothing enjoyed a painless switching process. Not just for one part of its tech stack, but two.
“Changing over was really easy and seamless. It was all done within a really short time period, which worked for us. We’re very happy with how it all worked.”
The brand's loyalty program is now driving real results. With a reward system that works for its customer base, and personalized engagement, it’s achieving a redemption rate well above the average. And enjoying sustainable growth as a result.
Looking to increase engagement in your loyalty program? Or to launch one from scratch?
Influence.io is a flexible, affordable loyalty app, available for both Shopify and BigCommerce merchants. Compare our rolling monthly price plans or take a tour of our product with a live demo.