Any business’s lifeblood is sales. Shopify VIP Customers may help you create more sales and faster.
Identifying Shopify VIP clients and providing them with a unique experience is an important element of customer retention. It increases brand loyalty and consumer advocacy.
Knowing what makes your company likable and why consumers would buy it is an important first step toward providing them with a fantastic purchasing experience every time.
To improve store productivity, merchants must first focus on leveraging Shopify analytics to identify their VIP customers promptly.
Let’s figure out how to locate Shopify VIP customers and increase our sales right now!
Table of Contents
Who are your Shopify VIP Customers?
The first step in growing more profitable is to distinguish customers. Unfortunately, not all purchasers result in increased sales and higher profits.
Customers can be segmented according to Vilfredo Pareto’s idea of the 80/20 rule in eCommerce, which states that 20% of your clients account for 80% of your revenue. These are typically known as VIPs.
If you want them to boost your earnings and be faithful to your brand, you need to know how to find and treat them correctly. Continue reading to discover the answers to all of these questions.
Importance of Customer Segmentation
Lenovo had determined to study client segmentation based on product propensity and corporate priorities as a result of the success it saw with customer segmentation. In order, conversions increased by 40 percent, as well as average revenue per visitor.
Customer segmentation, as indicated in the preceding graphic, enables companies to better understand customers and tailor marketing strategies for each group.
Here are some of the key advantages that may be obtained by leveraging Shopify customer segmentation:
- Higher conversion rates. Consumers are worth more to businesses in return when they perceive a brand to have a particular interest and concern for them. Customers react more favorably to personalized, personally addressed marketing communications. Customers that are more loyal to a brand are significantly more likely to tell others about it (59 percent), join the brand’s loyalty program (59 percent), and increase their spending (36 percent).
- Long-term profitability. It’s widely known that retaining existing customers is preferable to gaining new ones since repeat purchasers have a 60% to 70% chance of converting (Marketing Metrics, Paul Farris). According To Monetate, 93 percent of businesses that used sophisticated personalization techniques saw their income increase in 2018. By dividing your customers into distinct buyer categories and learning what items are purchased by each group, you’ll be able to provide them with personalized offers that increase the lifetime value of each customer and drive long-term profitability as a result.
- Improve customer satisfaction and retention. Customer segmentation allows you to make your customers feel special. You may personalize products, services, and recommendations to each group and provide relevant advice by using more targeted marketing messages. Solving the issues of each customer category, in particular, will increase consumer satisfaction and retention, and loyalty to your company.
- Help in acquiring high-value customers. You’ll be able to focus on customers who buy more and generate greater revenue for your business when you differentiate your buyers.
How to Identify Shopify VIP Customers?
It’s critical to figure out a premium customer group that will provide you with 80% of your profits. You should adhere to the following Shopify VIP client criteria to distinguish them:
- The amount of purchases is one of the most important characteristics that can reveal ‘big spenders’ or those who make orders on a frequent basis at a certain time. To identify VIP customers, start by looking at how often this or that buyer visits your store and makes purchases. Consumers spend 67 percent more on apparel after being loyal to a firm for 30 months.
- Another element for Shopify segmentation is the average purchase value. High volume does not always imply high value, as you may suppose. As a result, customers who make many low-priced purchases cannot be classified as VIPs. However, it is conceivable that buyers with a high AOV are deserving of this distinction. The top 10% of loyal consumers spend three times more per order than the bottom 90%, and the top 1 percent of customers spend five times as much as the lower 99 percent (RJMetrics).
- Purchases at full price can also help you establish VIP customer groups in your Shopify store. For some consumers, it’s critical to buy items on sale or using coupons. Others, on the other hand, are more valuable to merchants since they generally pay full price for items they purchase.
- The most dependable approach to determining the brand’s most valuable clients is through customer lifetime value (LTV). This variable may show how much money customers will spend with your company over the course of their relationship. Customers with a higher LTV are certainly labeled VIPs since they contribute a far bigger percentage to your bottom line.
- A specific product category may result in a greater profit margin for your e-store. Customers who buy more of these items are likely to be high-value customers.
- The best approach to figuring out who should be put on the VIP list or whether they should be removed is to analyze returns. While any buyer may have a return, there are certain clients that have an exceptionally high rate of returns. They can’t be on the VIP customer list as a result of it.
When you’ve identified Shopify VIP customers, treat them differently, give them a great buying experience to create brand loyalty, and strengthen your connection with them.
How to Handle Shopify VIP Customers?
Knowing the value of advanced customer segmentation, you should take measures to improve your VIP’s involvement and retention while also incentivizing them to grow your sales. What should you do?
The power of VIP experiences may make or break a business’s success, and the ideal platform is an important element in the process. Shopify stores that can create the ideal VIP experience on the appropriate platform will be able to unlock organic growth and long-term resilience.
Take a look at some effective ideas:
#1: Exclusive Sales for Shopify VIP Customers
To begin with, you may conduct special sales for VIP customers. Otherwise, start selling to them sooner rather than later. It is good practice to inform your customers about upcoming events through emails.
You should not forget to provide content for non-VIP segments so that they can experience a distinct feeling and understand the advantages of their status.
#2: Free Returns and Free Shipping
Customized perks are a great way to demonstrate your particular attitude toward VIPs. Free returns or free delivery are the finest deals you may provide for the most important clients.
According to InvespCRO, if a retailer provides free return shipping, 27% of purchasers are prepared to pay more than $1,000 for online purchases alone. At the same time, 92% of customers would buy from a business again only if the return procedure is simple.
#3: Rewards and Loyalty Programs
Exclusive gifts motivate 56.8% of customers to join loyalty programs, according to a recent survey. As a result, by establishing several loyalty programs that assist in conversion optimization, you give your VIPs more perks as they become more devoted.
When it comes to earning the most out of your rewards program, you should keep in mind that a VIP program’s aim is to make your best customers feel more appreciated than the typical shopper in order to increase the value of the program.
Make use of the following if you want to take advantage of loyalty systems:
Tiered Reward Program
According to this plan, VIP clients will get huge rewards depending on their position. As a result, the more clients spend, the greater their rewards. You may encourage your VIPs to buy even more using MageWorx’s Shopify Volume & Tiered Discounts Kit plugin.
You may motivate your audience to earn VIP status by comparing the levels that other participants have achieved. You may, for example, give them Silver, Gold, or Platinum VIP standing as a reward.
Set a milestone that must be achieved to join the next tier in order to make your VIP program more effective. For example, the goal for Sephora’s Beauty Insider program’s highest level is $1,000 spent each year. Even though it is attainable, not everyone can achieve it.
Points Reward Program
Another option for VIP customers is the point program. They earn points for every purchase, based on how much money is spent. The bigger the reward is given to buyers as they accumulate more points, the better.
Paid Reward Program
Customers who want to pay a fee for membership are the target of this sponsored program.
To get VIP customers to join this program, you must first demonstrate its value. For example, Barnes and Noble have offered a $25 annual payment as part of its membership program.
Best Shopify VIP Membership & Rewards Apps
The greatest companies of the last decade have achieved organic word-of-mouth and high retention by developing a large, devoted client following. This combination allows firms to expand their client base rapidly and inexpensively organically.
Nike, Apple, and Patagonia are all examples of companies that have worked to strengthen the emotional bond between their brands and consumers. Whether it’s a special metal credit card like American Express or the association of the brand with significant issues like Patagonia, brands have sought to strengthen that connection.
Creating VIP programs, which allow clients to feel more recognized by the brand, is one of the most effective strategies to enhance this emotional bond. This leads to a greater feeling of personal identity for the client that is more connected with the brand, making them more inclined to share their love of it and continue to spend money on it.
As a result, VIP experiences and programs are an extremely successful strategy to achieve long-term organic growth based on network effects without the need for sponsored advertising. There are several million different ways to develop VIP programs, but they all have in common a sense of exclusivity that makes clients feel like members of an exclusive club. Most programs use a hierarchy of levels to provide customers a sense of advancement as they acquire the privilege to enter a higher-level group and accessing greater rewards.
Creating a positive VIP membership experience and scaling it to the appropriate audiences necessitates the appropriate tools and platforms, but there are many options on the market that might be confusing.
That is why we’ve put up this manual. Our crew discovered the greatest plugins, platforms, and tools for building Shopify VIP membership communities.
We’ve divided up the list into several categories, including traditional VIP rewards platforms, which give tangible goods in exchange for typical activities like purchases or referrals, and pay-to-play membership schemes.
The company is also investing in technology to enable customers to pay for the option of being a VIP and taking advantage of the benefits and high-engagement loyalty, which create stronger status connections with consumers and provide more varied rewards like experiential prizes or input on goods.
Traditional VIP Rewards Programs
VIP Rewards programs focus on providing transactional benefits to VIPs in exchange for simple actions like buying more items or referring friends. This is essentially a loyalty platform, but tiers and unique benefits might occasionally raise these systems to an emotional level.
These platforms are ideal for client bases that want primarily financial incentives, such as discounts or free delivery. The pay-to-play VIP program is also part of this category, which entails customers paying for their membership rather than completing specific tasks.
Customers who have paid for access may be more confident in a business’s loyalty since they can receive all of the benefits that come with consumer interactions like sharing and recommendations.
Smile.io
Smile.IO is a Shopify leader in offering efficient and straightforward loyalty programs. They’re an excellent decision for businesses looking for easy integration, a limited but clear rewards system, and the ability to design incentives within their program.
A reward scheme in which members receive recognition for their membership in the program. A Vip rewards scheme, on the other hand, is not simply a standard rewards system. Tiers and a sense of separation between different reward groups are required, as well as a mechanism that can develop more personalized connections between customers and the company.
It’s worth noting that while Smile.IO provides several pricing levels, the VIP program is only accessible with the Pro plan, which costs $599 per month. In order to allow tiers and indirect elements like customized emails and website branding, this plan is necessary.
Smile.IO is an outstanding VIP membership rewards system for businesses that choose the Pro plan and are willing to create and manage their own programs.
Use Case
Smile.IO is an excellent solution for businesses that want to encourage a few actions but appeal to consumers who are interested in transactional benefits like discounts.
Loyalty Lion
With a comprehensive knowledge of best practices and a number of automated features, LoyaltyLion thrives on the ability to deliver impactful loyalty programs. Standard activities such as social follow, transactions, and referrals are all considered rewarding customer behaviors.
Customers may also earn points for in-store activities, making LoyaltyLion a viable alternative for Shopify stores with physical locations.
LoyaltyLion places a strong emphasis on automation and analytics. The platform keeps track of specific customer groups based on their participation (or lack thereof) in the loyalty program.
In tandem with automated segments comes a slew of testing and analytics tools intended to assist businesses to evaluate the return on investment of their loyalty program.
Use Case
LoyaltyLion is ideal for companies who want to track the ROI of their program and have access to testing and automation capabilities.
Bold
For VIP membership incentives, the a-la-carte alternative is to be bold. Instead of being a single platform, a collection of distinct standalone eCommerce applications may be linked together to provide extra capabilities.
Customers can earn points on multiple apps to use for purchases or discounts, making it simple to create clear and easy-to-integrate membership systems that reward consumers for activities. The disadvantage, on the other hand, is a limited degree of customization.
They’re a great option for businesses that want to go the DIY route and create their own programs and connections. It’s advised for Shopify shops using Bold to look at the complete Bold ecosystem of apps to see if combining several of them provides more value from the system.
Pay-to-play memberships are also offered, where membership is bought first to gain access to unique services, goods, and privileges. Because this style of membership isn’t as popular as others, Bold is an excellent choice for Shopify stores that wish to utilize the pay-to-play strategy.
Use Case
For businesses that want to select and choose which features they wish on their platform, or for premium membership programs, the Free plan is ideal. They’re also fantastic for pay-to-play VIPs.
High-Engagement VIP Rewards Programs
All of the platforms in this category have features that allow for transaction-based activities, such as referrals and social shares to be rewarded.
The distinguishing feature of this class of VIP membership platforms is the ability to establish rewardable challenges, provide status-based rewards, and deliver experiences that are tailored to a community. These frequently need additional customization and support.
Duel
Duel is the most prominent platform for creating bespoke and optimized VIP membership programs, which it accomplishes through a staff of specialists that assist with program development, implementation, and administration.
It’s the platform of choice for organizations that want to ensure their training programs are consistent and flexible.
Every Duel platform plan includes VIP membership perks, revenue growth tools, a managed service, and a completely customized member loyalty program (integration with the Duel team).
The possibilities for earning points are limited only by your own creativity. You have complete freedom over how you earn points, whether it’s creating unique content, telling stories, or traveling to special locations. The rewards themselves can be customized and include things like exclusive vacations, early access to sales, or the chance to influence product development.
Sites like ecommerce.marketing-savvy.com are perfect for merchants that want to devote themselves to developing a strong VIP program tailored to their demands, consumers, and branding.
Even if Duel does not offer a DIY plan, businesses that want moderation and program creation services should consider using Bold, where stores can choose which parts and features they want.
Use Case
A duel is a fantastic option for businesses that want a fully customized and custom VIP program that covers every requirement and comes with world-class expert input. Larger organizations with active communities may benefit disproportionately from this platform.
Swell
Swell is Yotpo’s response to Smile.IO’s loyalty program. With a tiered system, Swell allows merchants to create VIP programs with special privileges. The premium edition includes around 15 activities that customers may be rewarded for, including social followers reviews and referrals.
The method through which custom tasks can be generated distinguishes Swell from typical loyalty programs, putting them in our High-Engagement Loyalty list.
The premium option lets merchants develop their own tasks to be rewarded, with the aid of the Swell team. The use of a team to assist with program development and task execution allows for better administration of more non-conventional activities, just as it does in Duel.
Use Case
Swell is an excellent option for new businesses looking to establish a VIP program or existing customers already using Yotpo’s other features.
Wrap up on Shopify VIP Customers
Customer segmentation is a powerful instrument for growing your income and profits. In return, carefully chosen Shopify VIP members that are given due credit may help your brand to new heights and provide lifelong devotion.
You can use Shopify’s insight and understanding of your customer to segment and identify the most valuable Shopify VIP customers, pay close attention to them, and you’ll notice improvements in your brand.
