Building a loyalty program for low purchase frequency items

What is a low purchase frequency item?

Simply put, an ecommerce low purchase frequency item is one that consumers will buy, but then not buy again for a long time.

Take for example a fridge. Unless your fridge breaks down or you’re buying a fridge for a friend too, you’re unlikely to buy two fridges within the same week.

This is what’s known as a low purchase frequency item.

In this blog, we will take you through how to build a loyalty program for low purchase frequency items. We will take a look at the following points:

• What differentiates a low purchase frequency item from a low-cost item?
• Should you build a loyalty program for a low purchase frequency item?
• Finding the balance with a low purchase frequency item loyalty program
• Don’t just reward money spent

What differentiates a low purchase frequency item from a low-cost item?

People often get low purchase frequency item confused with low-cost item. Not always, but it’s often the case that the low purchase frequency items actually cost much more in price.

Low-cost items are items where the revenue you get back per each sold item is low.

Should you build a loyalty program for a low purchase frequency item?

For many people, there is no point considering a loyalty program if you’re selling low purchase frequency items, but that’s not necessarily the case.

There are ways of working around a low purchase frequency item and still using a loyalty program. It’s all about finding the balance.

Finding the balance with a low purchase frequency item loyalty program

Think about it like this, you ideally want your customers to become lifetime customers.

Let’s go back to our fridge example. Yes, a customer might not buy more than one fridge per month, that’s fine. However, there’s a good chance they might buy two or three in a lifetime. Let’s suppose customer A is buying three fridges in his lifetime. The first fridge he buys from your store.

That customer is very valuable to you if they come back to you to buy their second fridge, years later.

Now, without a loyalty program, or even encouraging the idea of your customers staying loyal to you, you might miss out on potential sales.

Also, even if your main selling item is a low purchase frequency item, like a car for example. Try to think outside the box and consider the items that are a high purchase frequency that you can offer as an upsell.

Don’t just reward money spent

Selling low purchase frequency items shouldn’t stop you from building a loyal customer base and shouldn’t stop you from utilising a loyalty program. You just need to think about it differently.

Think about rewarding customers for activities they do that don’t involve spending money.

Think about rewarding customers when they refer their friend to buy from you too.

Think about rewarding customers when they share your content on their social channels.

Think about rewarding customers when they write a positive review about your company.

Rewarding efforts like these are good because then your customers become your biggest advocates.

Takeaways

Thinking about low purchase frequency items, shouldn’t stop you also thinking about customer loyalty.

By thinking about interesting upsells and rewarding things other than purchases, you can still build a loyal customer base who act as advocates for your business, despite selling items that are of a low purchase frequency.