Claus Lauter: Welcome to the e commerce coffee break podcast and our summer school this week. It's all about loyalty. So let's dive right into it
Voice Over: This is the e commerce coffee break A top rated shopify growth podcast dedicated to shopify merchants And business owners looking to grow their online stores Learn how to survive in the fast changing e commerce world With your host Claus Lauter and get marketing advice you can't find on Google.
Voice Over: Welcome
Claus Lauter: to the show.
Claus Lauter: Hello and welcome to another episode of the E commerce Coffee Break podcast. Today we want to talk about loyalty programs and everything that comes with it. A lot of stores have already loyalty programs installed, but there is much more to it than just having one app. There's a lot of factor that on a lot of other factors that play into the game to make it successful.
Claus Lauter: So therefore, as a guest today on the show, I have dust it with me. Dastan is a digital marketing expert of working for growave.io.. He, his specialization is in content management. He has a background in SEO, social media, e-commerce and content creation. He's also an expert in researching market trends, communicating for strategic, strategic purposes and content strategy.
Claus Lauter: So let's welcome Dastan to the show. Hey, Dastan, how are you today?
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, thank you so much for having me. I'm doing great.
Claus Lauter: Dastan, we want to talk about five mistakes that you see that are merchants doing when it comes to loyalty. So give me a bit of a background. What plays into a successful loyalty program?
Dastan Chikeev: So, uh, Let's let's begin with the basics. Um, as as you may recognize, there's a major issue with implementation when it comes to loyalty programs. Whenever you're thinking about starting your own e commerce business, or perhaps you're going from physical only to digital. You have this issue with a bit with programming and building your loyalty program and we provide a comprehensive solution.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, which enables you to activate your store and start using that sort of functionality. Uh, the problem is, is the absence of control. It's the, it's the issue with basically implementation of your goals. And we provide the solution that allows you to basically not only create your own personalized, which is a very, uh, and branded, uh, loyalty program, but actually to, to engage the customer, uh, on an active basis and to maintain that relationship with them.
Dastan Chikeev: So if we go into like the more, more, let's say, uh, classical understanding of loyalty programs, we realize that yet. Okay. Uh, loyalty is defined as basically an emotional connection at a basic level with a customer, but fundamentally, you need to have, you need the ability to implement whatever idea you may have.
Dastan Chikeev: And engaged with that person, but doing so from across the globe is nearly impossible without some sort of platform. Nowadays, the costs are just outrageous, and we've successfully provided a sure we can call it a general solution because of an app, but we have everything you need in order to Optimize, customize brand and observe all your analytics from one centralized platform.
Dastan Chikeev: And this is really the key to success. It's the it's the analytics. It's the customization. It's the active communication. It's the implementation and the options that you have to create a comprehensive solution for your company.
Claus Lauter: Makes total sense to have that in one app. Now, a lot of versions have different apps.
Claus Lauter: They not necessarily play with each other. And as you said, the analytics might be also in different reporting tools there. Now, when it comes to having a loyalty program, I mean, to get there, there is different ways to go, um, go there. So there's reviews, wishlists, gift cards, referrals, everything plays into get your customer, come back to your store, be low, buy more from you.
Claus Lauter: So let's dive into the different sections of what your app provides. Um, what, where is usually the, the customer journey starting with?
Dastan Chikeev: So the customer journey begins with, with the onboarding process. And the key here is, well, from the marketing side, Um, there's a few issues we want to make sure that the onboarding process is clean, uh, that it's, it's informative that it's, uh, it's not too difficult to manage.
Dastan Chikeev: We really want to think about how that onboarding process works out and how quickly we can get the customer from point A to point B and making sure that they're satisfied along that course. Um, I believe we successfully done so, but we're still in the process of, you know, developing our product. Day to day, and we come out with a new, new ways of basically bringing benefit to our customers, or just, just small nuance things can make a world of a difference.
Dastan Chikeev: And, and that's not something people really give a lot of attention to. And it's something that's really important here at Grow Wave. And we, we, I believe you can succeed in doing that. So it starts with an important process and it goes into the selection of sort of rewards that you want to give. Now, the rewards that you give out are deeply strategic because let's say, for instance, a major component of your business is social media, and you don't give too much attention to other alternative sources of traffic or leads, but you focus on social media.
Dastan Chikeev: With this loyalty program and the rewards that you, that we have available for you, you can reward Uh, let's say, for instance, a follow on Instagram or a like on on on Facebook or a comment on on Twitter or something along those lines, you can award award those sort of interactions with rewards and and this basically allows you to channel where you want these people to be going to.
Dastan Chikeev: Um, and then we have the reviews. Well, in my personal opinion, and I'm sure that you may agree with me, reviews are probably one of the most important, important, uh, um, tools that we have in order to cultivate authority and authenticity within our business. And, uh, to give you an example, One of our devoted customers, for instance, Joshua Lloyd.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, he's one of the premier LGBTQ businesses in Europe, and he has cultivated more than 1, 000 reviews on his main website. And the effect that has on your e commerce performance is fundamentally changing. Uh, you have this ironclad reputation online that's backed by thousands of people advocating your product.
Dastan Chikeev: And this is enough for you to build a A legitimate reputation to begin that process of, uh, of, uh, scaling your brand. And I believe, you know, the steps that you take to get to where you want to be involves the products that we sort of offer. So it's more like a, yes, it's an all in one marketing solution, but the, your goal and our goals are, are synchronized.
Dastan Chikeev: They're aligned. We want to get to the same position as you're trying to, uh, trying to get to, we want to help you get there. And that's our success. And then we have social log. Social login is basically this abridged version of the registration process. Now, we believe that a major point, a pain point for most businesses, uh, they go through this process of registration, registering for a loyalty program that requires your name, email address, phone number, the works.
Dastan Chikeev: And this could take you through several pages, perhaps take you more than five minutes. But we have this product called Social Login that allows you basically to use your Facebook or your email or wherever Social media platform that you generally use to log in immediately and start accumulating points.
Dastan Chikeev: And now it also stands to, uh, stands to say that you can reward social login. So the minute somebody is basically logs in using social login, you can immediately give them like a 5 percent discount and this could motivate them to complete that purchase. And knowing that they have this sort of extra boost of, uh, you know, support from us, um, we also have Instagram and UGC.
Dastan Chikeev: So if, if for instance, you use your Instagram to sell your product, you can integrate a gallery into your, into your webpage, integrate products into those pages and turn your Instagram into this selling machine, like an, like an only channel sort of approach where you're using your social media to sell, sell your product.
Dastan Chikeev: And then we have wish list, which is basically it's a lot like a birthday wish list or marriage registry. You fill this wish list up with products that you love that let's say they're out of they're out of stock, or they're a bit expensive that day, or perhaps you can't afford it, but you want to share it with your loved ones.
Dastan Chikeev: You can accumulate products inside this wish list. And then when, for instance, uh, The product goes on sale or it's back in stock. You'll receive an automated, uh, response through the wishlist system, the email notification system that tells you that this product is back, or you can share that wishlist on, on social media or through email to, let's say your grandmother or your mother, and they can purchase that product for you.
Dastan Chikeev: Um, and then we have those are the core products. But then we have like these additional features. So we have a deep analytics section that gives you basically comprehensive information about everything that we do. We have an email notification center that allows you to automate email email notifications to keep in touch with customers.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, we all these things are, of course, are custom. We are customizable. We have boost campaigns, which will give you basically multiply points during a specific period of time that you can designate. Um, we also, uh, what else do we have? Um, there's there's definitely more. There's a lot of branding that you can do.
Dastan Chikeev: There's the analytics section. But that's generally the idea that we have behind GrowAway. We want to provide everybody a solution and options that they can implement their own strategy and abundance of options as opposed to a restricted amount of options. I think that's the major difference.
Claus Lauter: Hey, Claus here.
Claus Lauter: Just a quick one. If you like the content of this episode, sign up for our free newsletter and become a Smarter Shopify Merchant in just 7 minutes per week. We curate content from more than 50 sources, saving you hours of research and helping you stay on top of your e commerce game with the latest news, insights, and trends.
Claus Lauter: Every Thursday in your inbox, 100 percent free. Join now at newsletter. ecommercecoffeebreak. com. That is newsletter. ecommercecoffeebreak. com. And now back to the show. you No, that sounds very interesting. I like the idea that, um, sort of a micro engagement, a micro action, just logging in, um, already can give you points or going to a Facebook page and like the page gives you points.
Claus Lauter: There's definitely approach where a client, um, has a bit of a success feeling along the way. So it's not just one big thing. You have bought something, you get some points, be loyal. Um, but along the way you can already start in collecting points. Now, what are the biggest mistakes that you see from merchants?
Claus Lauter: Coming to you, what they have done in the past was their loyalty program.
Dastan Chikeev: So, uh, if the major issue, the most fundamental issue, it's people, uh, people are not completely aware of the full functionality of GrowWave. So GrowWave has all these features that are profoundly powerful and can help you really scale your business.
Dastan Chikeev: And if you use them to your advantage, they can be a great success for you. But a lot of the time customers are not engaging in the way that they expect we would, we do it. Expect them to do so. Part of my job has to do with educating people on how to optimize or implement these features or so on and so forth.
Dastan Chikeev: And so what we're trying to do is to really create that level of understanding where people are actually succeeding using our tools. So that's definitely number one. Number two probably has to be with the value of points. Um, we have to understand sure. Okay. Uh, let me, let me just, um, backtrack just a moment here.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, we have seen this trend of, of basically because paid ads and, uh, PPC are, they're getting more expensive, uh, more difficult to really, uh, Really could convert. We've seen this rise in basically cost of acquisition, and I'm sure you would agree with me when I say this, um, in loyalty programs, they really they bridge that gap.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, they they give you an alternative solution, but the caveat is that finance that loyalty programs do have are considered liabilities because every point that you award has a financial value. And so where do we where do we go? Go basically into the details. Here is number two mistake is the value of the rewards.
Dastan Chikeev: The value of the rewards is fundamental for success. Because although we can't say, for instance, Oh, you need to fix it at this level and expect results. What we need you to do. It's basically observe the analytics monitor growth, right? And see where you need to basically divert the points to Okay. Play with the point values and accumulate that value that you're trying to accomplish.
Dastan Chikeev: That's definitely something that's super important. Uh, number three. Okay. Yes, our core features are, are very well listed and known, but the secondary features like the email notification center is critical, critical. I've seen statistics about, uh, email conversion rates, and I noticed that they were ranked as the highest performing conversion channel.
Dastan Chikeev: And, and I completely agree because, okay, yes, you can, you can, you can And yes, you have an expectation and it's sort of, okay, you might be pessimistic about its value because it's not very, very surprising or eye catching, but it keeps you relevant. It keeps you in their inbox. It keeps you talking. It keeps you there.
Dastan Chikeev: It's a, it's an opportunity for you to at almost zero cost. Stay completely active with the customer. And that's something that I'm really disappointed with. Um, that's I believe number three. Um, number four, uh, number four. Okay. Reviews. Now I say this because it's so important. Um, I gave you that example about Joshua Lloyd, but that's not the only example out there.
Dastan Chikeev: There are hundreds of excellent examples about reviews. Fundamentally changed the existence of a company because it created this almost community of, of, of advocates, uh, net promoter scores. I mean, that's just one example. Now, I mentioned reviews because it's, it's incredibly important. Uh, it's, it's. It's fundamentally what we're trying to accomplish.
Dastan Chikeev: It's that reputation. It's that layer of trust. As you, as you probably also know that, you know, this divide when we're, when we're trying to sell over the internet. It's, it's, it's impossible to just ignore. Uh, you don't have the opportunity to be in person, to communicate, to demonstrate your presence.
Dastan Chikeev: product, uh, like you would, uh, in a typical shopping mall. So we need to have this trust and that's really what the first challenge that we have. And so number four mistake would be not leveraging the full potential of reviews. Uh, we want you to reward reviews. We want you to accumulate not tens, but hundreds of reviews.
Dastan Chikeev: We want you not to just use reviews on your pages, but you want. Emails as well. Uh, trying to manage that data by exporting, importing it into other mediums so that you have that extra layer of reputable, reputable sources. You know, that independent, uh, advocacy, we want people to really just, you know, push that envelope and, and promote your business.
Dastan Chikeev: And, and that's super important for us. Um, number five. Okay. Um, okay. Tears, uh, in loyalty programs. This, this is it. Also, a very interesting observation that I've had, um, yes, we have, we have like the stereotype of a complete loyalty program where you have the FAQs, the pages, you have everything, you've done everything, but there are a lot of really popular loyalty programs that take that to another level.
Dastan Chikeev: They use this new creative element. They give you a specialized in person experience. They give you free tickets to partners or free tickets to events or, or early access to limited edition products or seasonal discounts, early access. You can differentiate your loyalty program greatly by, by taking advantage of your creativity.
Dastan Chikeev: That's definitely number five, create creativity environment in loyalty programs.
Claus Lauter: Yeah, makes total sense. I like that you mentioned email as one of very, one of the very important pillars of, um, loyalty programs, because that's something that I don't see often. People just think it's, um, install it and it will back, um, work its way back in the background and you just forget about what's doing.
Claus Lauter: But I think just, Coming back to the customer. And as you said, email is a very important marketing channel and it won't go away is very important. So for me, what immediately came into mind is all the airlines that I'm signed up with. I'm not using all these airlines all the time, but once a month or so I get all these loyalty program reminders with.
Claus Lauter: the points I have and what I can do with it. And then also, as I said, with the motivation, um, on puts my points into some special, some, um, extra that is just running out the last point that you mentioned. So I think it's very interesting to just combine these whole thing and all, all of these different things and, um, make it a complete thing.
Claus Lauter: No. When it comes to the, um, set up and on the learning curve of grow wave, um, how does that work? How much time do I need, um, to spend with that? What kind of homework do I need to do before I can get started?
Dastan Chikeev: Yeah, sure. So grow wave it's built to be customer centric. Uh, so we operate on the Shopify official app store.
Dastan Chikeev: And of course, in order to to be present in that app store, you have to meet a certain criteria. And, um, what what really makes Pro Wave, uh, sort of an elevated product is is the fact that the administrative panel, uh, is modernized. Uh, simple, simple to use, well organized, and the process is actually very easy.
Dastan Chikeev: Um, we expect customers to be done with the onboarding process within three to five minutes. I mean, we can say under five minutes, um, and I can do so confidently as well. And then when you're, uh, when you're actually in the administrative panel, your control center for Grow Wave, uh, we don't, we don't force you to deviate out of, out of Shopify.
Dastan Chikeev: You're actually, uh, embedded into the, uh, Shopify, uh, settings administrative panel as well. And so everything is like it. Here's, here's this, uh, one, one, uh, sort of nuanced, uh, thing that we like to consider, uh, when we're trying to market our product. Some products offer. What grow wave offers dividing to several apps.
Dastan Chikeev: Um, and to basically operate all these apps. Uh, you don't have synchronized information. Um, data is, uh, is dispersed. Um, it can get complicated, but you have everything in this one simplified modern platform and it just elevates the experience.
Claus Lauter: Okay. What kind of integrations to other apps or software solutions do you offer?
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, we have numerous partners, uh, 20 plus, uh, uh, partner integrations, and we're actively working to build relationships with them as well. Um, if you, if you go to our blog, you'll see a few partners that, uh, that were really optimistic when they heard they have an opportunity to post something on our blog.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, and that's what's, that's something we like to do. We, we like to talk to partners, um, see what we can do for them. Promote them, help them out like, um, we recently had one app that, uh, that recently opened up and I was, I was more than happy to, to share their profile on our blog as well. So that's something that we're actively looking to, to promote in the, in the industry.
Claus Lauter: Okay, tell me a little bit about the pricing structure of your app.
Dastan Chikeev: So the pricing structure, we actually take what I believe the best approach. Um, uh, so some products, uh, you, you'll, you'll find, uh, they, they're, first of all, they're a little more expensive than us, um, uh, which is, which is not, not something that's entirely negative.
Dastan Chikeev: That's just, uh, that's their product, right? It's their, it's their right to price it as they wish. But what really bothers me is how. Features. So on the lowest plans, uh, you basically have maybe like 20 percent of the functionality of the later plans will grow away if you have full access to the full platform and all the features starting from the very lowest plan, and we structured according to your year.
Dastan Chikeev: Capabilities. So, so let's say, for instance, you're a small business that just starting up and your overheads are pretty tight and we don't want to overburden. So what we do is basically structure our features to basically give you that sort of leeway to, uh, to allow the affordability to, to basically use a full, full platform without any restrictions.
Dastan Chikeev: Something that most companies don't actually offer, but grow with us.
Claus Lauter: Okay. I know I like that. Um, but that definitely makes sense to have a tailor made to the size of your business and not to the number of features that you offer there. Um, Dastan, where can people find out more about Grow Wave?
Dastan Chikeev: So we, we are, uh, the best source of information, of course, is going to be our main website, which is growwave.
Dastan Chikeev: io. We have a very active blog, which I manage, um, with information on how to use GrowWave to its full capacity, how to optimize, great example of basically how to implement your own loyalty programs, how to take advantage of the email notifications, just a comprehensive solution, uh, everything you need about GrowWave and, and marketing and, and e commerce.
Dastan Chikeev: It's, we have that available on our blog. Um, you can find also more detailed, uh, uh, descriptions of GrowWave. Uh, of our blog, uh, of our product on the Shopify app store. Um, and a bunch of reviews as well. So we have a thousand plus reviews, uh, great reviews. We're highly rated in the Shopify app store. Uh, we encourage you to visit the official shop store and take a look at our product.
Dastan Chikeev: Uh, that's growwave. io.
Claus Lauter: Okay. Now I saw you also on your website, you offer a, um, a check in on a demo store that people can really try it out and see how it works.
Dastan Chikeev: Yeah. Yeah. Uh, we, we have, we take pride in, in our demo store. We worked really hard on it. Uh, it describes our product really well. Uh, it gives you the ability to interact with the product to see firsthand out what the sort of experience your customer is going to go through.
Dastan Chikeev: And, uh, we encourage everybody to check it out as well.
Claus Lauter: Okay, Dastan, I really liked the overview and it gives a good idea for a merchant that loyalty is not just fire and forget. It's much more to make it successful for your business. And, um, I would recommend, and I will put the links in the show notes that everyone checks out the demo store.
Claus Lauter: I did it. And I think it gives a very good overview of what your product can do. Thanks so much, Dastan, for your time and have a great day. Thank you, Claus.
Dastan Chikeev: Have a great
Claus Lauter: day. Hey Claus here. Thank you for joining me on another episode of the e commerce coffee break podcast. Before you go, I'd like to ask two things from you.
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Claus Lauter: We create content from more than 50 sources, saving you hours of research and helping you stay on top of your e commerce game with the latest news, insights, and trends. Every Thursday in your inbox, 100 percent free. Join now at newsletter. ecommercecoffeebreak. com. That is newsletter. ecommercecoffeebreak.
Claus Lauter: com. Thanks again, and I'll catch you in the next episode. Have a good one.
