Article

UK kitchen, home store launches first loyalty club

Lakeland, a home and kitchenware retailer in business for more than 50 years, has deployed its first loyalty program and offers insight on strategy.

Photo courtesy of Lakeland.

November 27, 2019 by Judy Mottl — Editor, RetailCustomerExperience.com & DigitalSignageToday.com

Retaining the customer is front of mind for every retailer big or small, new or tenured. As one U.K.-based kitchen and homeware retailer reveals it's never too late to launch a loyalty program to keep current customers coming back, while drawing new shoppers into the store.

Lakeland is a more than 50-year-old retail chain with 67 locations and a vibrant e-commerce channel. The family-owned business was founded in the early 1960s when it sold plastic bags for home freezing from a family garage. Today, the chain sells more than 4,000 kitchen and home products.

In late summer it launched its first-ever loyalty club, called myLakeland, with the help of a long-time partner, PCMS, a retail commerce software and services provider. Club benefits include special offers, invitations to events, including cookery demos, and discounts from partners, including Greatest British Cookery Schools, HelloFresh, Naked Wines, cottages.com and Hearst Magazines. Customers also receive a 10% discount on their next purchase as a thank you for joining the club.

The loyalty club strategy is multi-pronged – it aims to boost customer service, reward customers and also entice new customers to shop online and in store. And, in response to the growing consumer segment that cares about a retailer's philanthropic nature, the loyalty program is helping generate funds for two charities.

The club initiative represents a new chapter in the retailer's history, according to Gary Marshall, Lakeland's operations director, who said a smooth integration and implementation by PCMS has led to a great experience for customers.

"It's long since been a desire to create a loyalty club for our customers and it's been exciting to finally see this come to fruition with the infrastructure and personnel in place to drive this forward," he told Retail Customer Experience in an email interview.

The primary goal is to deliver a club that enhances the shopping experience, he said.

"Customers are truly at the heart of our business. Whether it's offering discounts and offers, access to bespoke events or a more personalized shopping experience, myLakeland certainly delivers," he said, adding that Lakeland has been partnering with PCMS since 2015.

Back then Lakeland was seeking to deploy an electronic point of sale platform and PCMS beat out eight other potential partners. Lakeland deployed PCMS' Vision Commerce Suite, as well as an integrated web and CRM solution across almost 70 stores during a peak trading period. The rollout allowed Lakeland to develop a mobile strategy and enjoy a single view of the customer.

"Following a successful implementation [of the initial tech project] the partnership has grown and developed over time and we are delighted that they could support us with the developments required to support our recent launch of myLakeland," said Marshall.

He credits strong teamwork as the prime factor for myLakeland's success. 

"Any launch of a loyalty program will require teamwork. Our systems are fully integrated and this project required full cooperation and collaboration between our strategic system partners to make it a success. I am delighted that the team worked so well together for the launch and will continue to do so as we refine and improve our customer loyalty experience and offers," he said.

While the retailer declined to provide insight on club figures around members and interaction, Marshall said he was "incredibly pleased" with initial response.

"A loyalty club is an exciting, yet large undertaking, and you need to ensure that you have a dedicated and passionate team in place who truly understand your customer. We're incredibly fortunate to have such a team in place at Lakeland and we take great pride in continuing to learn from our customers and will use this insight to continue to improve and develop our club for our members," said Marshall.

About Judy Mottl

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Judy Mottl is editor of Retail Customer Experience and Digital Signage Today. She has decades of experience as a reporter, writer and editor covering technology and business for top media including AOL, InformationWeek, InternetNews and Food Truck Operator.

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