Case Study: How a Loyalty Program Launch Helped this Shopify Plus Fashion Store Grow

When Pulse Boutique initially reached out to us, they were looking to take their customer engagement to the next level.

The brand wanted to offer their loyal customers the chance to join a friendly conversation, ‘share the love’ and become part of a mutually beneficial business-to-consumer relationship.

With their devoted fan base of customers returning to their website time and time again, we recognised that a loyalty program was the only missing link in the community chain they were building.

The Pulse Boutique team were immediately on board with this idea and were excited about its potential to increase their number of returning users, encourage customer engagement on social media and up the amount of user-generated content featured on their website (such as written customer reviews and photo submissions).

To help Pulse Boutique realise their growth potential, we therefore got to work creating ‘Pulse Perks’ for their customers by integrating a LoyaltyLion rewards scheme into their Shopify store.

Shopify fashion store Pulse Boutique’s new loyalty program landing page.

The design strategy behind Pulse Boutique’s loyalty program

Our cheerful and engaging loyalty page design for Pulse Boutique.

A crucial part of ensuring that Pulse Boutique’s new loyalty program would be a success was to motivate as many of their customers as possible to sign up.

When creating the landing page for the Pulse Perks program, our design team wanted to prioritise the four main perks of membership; free gifts, access to exclusive VIP and new release collections, product discounts and priority shipping.

These perks were all communicated boldly above the fold of the page through large, clean and fun icons designed to entice customers and instantly give them a clear idea of what they could gain by joining the club.

After immediately seeing why they should get involved, interested customers are then able to scroll down the page to find out more information about the loyalty program.

The details become more refined as customers read on, moving into an infographic explaining the different tiers of membership and finishing with a helpful list of FAQs.

The tier system presented and explained when scrolling down on Pulse Boutique’s loyalty program landing page.

When designing this page, our team’s focus was on strong imagery, visual cues and colours that matched the existing branding.

For example, throughout their website, Pulse Boutique are strong on using photos of cheerful models wearing the brand’s clothing. Swanky used these pictures throughout the landing page, as the natural contagiousness of human emotion makes happy faces a simple but powerful marketing tool for enhancing customer satisfaction and thereby increasing brand appeal.

From a colour perspective, we matched the store’s existing branding on the loyalty page by combining Pulse Boutique’s signature pink with an on-trend rose gold effect; a combination which suggests fun and friendliness as well as luxury and exclusivity.

“When designing Pulse Boutique’s loyalty program, we wanted to communicate both its warmth and its exclusivity in equal measure. To achieve this, we mixed the brand’s classic pink colour scheme and smiling faces with a striking gold colour to give the program a look that is both premium and accessible.”

– Matt Giles, Web Designer at Swanky

We also encouraged more customers to visit the page by designing a homepage banner with a clear call-to-action button. This homepage banner re-emphasises the four key perks of signing up while still making use of the brand’s vibrant colours and friendly models.

Banner advertising Pulse Boutique’s loyalty program on their store’s homepage.

How did we set up the loyalty program to increase user-generated content?

Another key component of this loyalty program strategy is that it rewards customers for leaving reviews on products.

This drives user-generated content creation (including customer-submitted photos and videos) and therefore boosts the credibility and profitability of the brand.

According to BrightLocal, 85% of customers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations, and featuring reviews on a website has been shown to produce an 18% uplift in sales on average.

This makes customer reviews one of the most effective ways to build brand trust among new customers – something we wanted to encourage Pulse Perks’ members to help create.

The review app we chose to integrate into Pulse Boutique’s website was Okendo. We find this app to be great for online fashion stores, as it allows users to leave multi-layered reviews in which they can rate multiple aspects of an item (such as its quality, comfort and sizing).

Users can also upload photos or videos of themselves wearing Pulse Boutique’s clothes – and are incentivised to do so as this action earns them more loyalty points – which in some cases has been proven to help brands increase conversion rates by up to 91%!

As an extra bonus, customers who leave reviews can choose to provide details about their age and size, to help other customers decide whether a product is right for them.

Example of a customer review left on one of Pulse Boutique’s best-selling tops, including photo attachments and ratings for multiple aspects of the product.

What were the results of this loyalty program launch?

In short, the results of Pulse Boutique’s new loyalty program were staggering.

Since the launch of the Pulse Perks rewards program, the brand have experienced a 39% uplift in returning customers.

Their average order value is up by 19% for orders using coupon codes, and the discount codes generated by LoyaltyLion for returning customers generated over $200k in earned rewards purchases in the months following Pulse Perks’ launch.

As a result of all of this heightened follow-on customer engagement, the brand’s revenue and conversion rate increase quickly became something worth celebrating!

What’s next for Pulse Boutique?

As Pulse Boutique continue to welcome excited customers to become part of their VIP community, they can build on their success by introducing new elements to the program over time.  

For example, moving forward, the brand may choose to integrate customer surveys into their website to capture more of their users’ information and further personalise their customers’ interaction with their business.

Providing personalised content can be an extremely effective way for businesses to increase their customer retention, conversion rate and ultimately their profitability – whether through providing personalised customer recommendations in marketing or delivering customised on-site experiences.

With the foundation of Pulse Boutique’s loyalty program now firmly in place – and already delivering such strong results for their business – we are excited to see what the future holds for this rapidly scaling fashion store.

Should you invest in a loyalty program for your Shopify store?

Customer loyalty programs are undoubtedly one of the most effective ways for businesses looking to increase their customer retention, advertising return on investment and overall profitability.

In fact, recent research has revealed that just a 5% increase in customer loyalty can increase businesses’ average profit per customer by 25%-100% – and that 83% of online shoppers say they are more likely to continue buying from brands with loyalty programs in place.

Importantly, customer loyalty programs are not simply a short-term endeavour but will continue to deliver impressive results over time. In fact, the average repeat customer spends 67% more in their 31st to 36th months of membership than in their first 6 months of signing up.

With all of this considered, customer loyalty programs are a great investment to consider for any Shopify business looking to maximise their long-term ecommerce success.

Looking to boost your revenue by increasing your business’ customer retention and lifetime value? Check out our Shopify Plus Loyalty Bundle, with everything you need to develop a data-driven loyalty strategy that keeps customers coming back for more!