Membership model that offers discounts, early access, and store credit

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About

BVA is one of the largest Shopify Plus agencies in the Plus Partner network, helping companies like MVMT Watches, Rebecca Minkoff, Tommy John, and Minky Couture grow their ecommerce storefronts. They have been voted Yotpo’s Shopify Plus Agency of the Year and continue to push the envelope with innovative subscription business models.

Minky Couture used memberships to turn followers into loyal customers

Minky Couture was created in 2009 when founder Sandi Hendry longed to provide comfort to her daughter who was in the hospital. Pulling from childhood memories, she hand stitched an incredibly soft blanket for her daughter to hold. Soon there were dozens of blankets given to those in need, and shortly after, hundreds.

Fast forward a few years and Minky Couture was a thriving business, able to provide comfort and stability to their customers around the world. In addition to their business, Minky donates thousands of blankets to charities, hospitals, and fundraisers around the country.

“Recharge has been very-user friendly for us. It is easy to navigate and make changes quickly to accommodate our customers. We also love the automated emails that remind customers of their upcoming charges.”

Shelly Christensen

Customer Service Manager, Minky Couture

Challenge

While Minky had a large existing audience, they needed a way to drive sustainable growth. Many previous customers knew the quality and value the company could provide. However, Minky was searching for a way to re-engage not only those customers, but also those closest to them. Oftentimes the best opportunity for growth is targeting friends and family of past customers.

Additionally, they were looking for a way to steady inventory and forecast revenue to make data-driven decisions for the long-term growth of the company. Inventory for a blanket company can be difficult to predict with warmer months requiring less inventory and colder months often necessitating significantly more.

Revenue forecasting is a piece of an ecommerce strategy that subscriptions specifically solve for. With a recurring audience, businesses can truly understand what their incoming revenue will look like 1, 3, 6, even 12 months in the future. This provides a sense of security knowing that even before any additional sales there will be guaranteed revenue each month, regardless of traditional seasonality.

Minky already had a large, high-converting audience, but they knew that they hadn't tapped all of their followers in their network. The question was: How were they going to take these followers into first-time customers and keep them coming back for the products?

Solution

To attract those new, untapped customers, Minky Couture created the Hugs Membership Program. This subscription-based membership would give subscribers first access to new items, 45% off all products, free shipping, a $20 monthly store credit, and an additional $10 on the subscriber’s birthday. The focus on recurring subscriptions encouraged new customers to subscribe and keep coming back month after month.

A subscription-based program this complex needed a powerful platform that not only supported recurring charges but could also work seamlessly with other ecommerce technologies through an API. Recharge was that platform.

The Hugs program was launched with the help of Recharge, along with Yotpo for loyalty rewards, and has seen exponential growth since. The team leaned on the Freshly Picked subscription model as inspiration - subscribers aren’t necessarily getting products every month.

Results

Yotpo allowed merchants to offer multiple paid VIP tiers, keep a stored balance of points or credits, power coupons and rewards, deploy referral programs, enable dynamic benefits for VIP members at checkout, and include all relevant data into email campaigns and automated flows through robust integrations. Additionally, Yotpo provided the strategic guidance on loyalty and retention methods and the account management required to drive meaningful ROI for this type of membership program.

Recharge ensured that all the moving parts crucial to the success of a program like this were functioning correctly, in addition to accurately tracking revenue and subscriptions. In just 3 months, results have been terrific with the Hugs program boasting more than 3,000 members, half of which are first-time customers. Additionally, the membership pays for itself after 1 blanket purchase.