Loyalty programs in furniture stores of the new millennium are by now a known reality, appreciated but not yet so rooted – if we exclude the big international brands which, by spirit, tend to move more quickly towards technological innovations.
The so-called fidelity cards can represent a marketing tool of great value and very advantageous both for the furniture shop and for its customers: through the loyalty programs, the first is in a position to monitor the behavioral development of the repeated purchase and the sentiment of the most assiduous customers, while the latter are rewarded with discounts and facilitations for their purchasing decisions.
If well studied, a loyalty program is certainly useful for furniture stores that want to position themselves in their own market segment in a new way, making their theories and practices of advanced and multi-directional inbound marketing their own.
Loyalty programs for furniture showrooms: the advantages
But what are the advantages of loyalty programs for an interior design shop ?
Starting from the assumption of a correct and synergistic structuring of the marketing strategy, which should necessarily use more than one promotional tool to increase brand loyalty and the number of customers, there are undoubtedly a series of qualities that cannot be ignored .
Let’s start talking about the objectives of the loyalty programs : rewarding the most loyal and most assiduous customers of our furniture store, in fact orienting their behavior towards an even more marked loyalty. Customers will be able to take advantage of discounts and concessions specifically tailored to their needs (naturally subject to an adequate marketing survey), through differentiation and segmentation of users and their behaviors.
Loyalty programs can be built on fidelity cards (or loyalty cards ) offered by the furniture store. These cards offer the opportunity to accumulate points or units of value that will be decided by the furniture showroom itself: these values will be recorded on the card when the loyal customer makes a purchase.
Among the main advantages of loyalty programs it is worth mentioning:
- The ability to identify, classify and differentiate the most loyal customers of the interior design showroom
- The ability to offer loyal customers a unique reward , which increases brand awareness and satisfaction
- The possibility, for the furniture store, to create a real marketing database , which will contain all the information relating to customers and their purchase funnels. In this way the furniture showroom will be able to create ad hoc sales strategies, based on the behaviors received and recorded
- The possibility of obtaining greater earnings by crystallizing, maintaining, implementing and rewarding the loyalty of customers who, in this case, no longer receive only products but also proactive and positive services
- The possibility of promoting one’s business to the detriment of competitors through an advanced, sustainable marketing activity with a relatively low investment
More and more furniture stores understand the value of the purchase incentive from their most loyal customers. And they know that it is cheaper to invest budget to produce magnetic cards than to distribute point collection cards. The former, in fact, make it possible to record a wealth of very precious information on an IT level, also useful for future sales strategies.
Loyalty programs and furniture stores: the IKEA example
IKEA , perhaps the most famous furniture store in the world, represents a very interesting case study regarding the generation of brand awareness and brand fidelity through loyalty programs and points cards .
The initiative, now widespread on the world market for the Swedish giant, is also regularly advertised on the website of the parent company.
The user is invited to “become a member” of the so-called “ IKEA Family ”, the brand’s points card, which is immediately accompanied by a discount coupon for the customer . Basically, a small incentive that the brand can afford to pay for the precious earnings that the subscription to the card will bring.
The use of IKEA Family for the customer allows you to take advantage of offers in points of sale, products always at a special price and even benefit from a series of agreements with many partner companies. There are also proposals for free events and seminars in the shops, discounts on food consumption in the stores, multimedia tutorials on the transport of purchased furniture. Correctly from a strategic marketing point of view, subscribing to the loyalty program also corresponds to subscribing to a newsletter .
IKEA is just one of the many examples of virtuous use of a loyalty program , capable of bringing undeniable advantages to both the company and users, while maintaining a close link between the brand and customers, always enticed to buy from promotions and gifts.
For the structuring of a correct marketing plan that knows how to integrate the use of a fidelity card and related loyalty programs , the support of communication specialists is essential, who will be able to guide the interior design showroom towards the new frontier of brand promotion.
