Breaking Down Bliss Club Referral and Loyalty Rewards Program
Updated: Jul 2
It was 6 AM. I turned my alarm off and woke up to go for a run. As I walked towards my wardrobe to gather activewear, I felt bummed.
I saw my pocket-less leggings in front of me. This meant I’d have to carry my AirPods case and house keys in my hands and I hated that.
Upon fumbling through clothes in my laundry bag, I saw my jogger mocking me for missing my laundry day.
Now you may think, “You could wear a jacket?” and of course, I could but no one likes to run wearing a jacket, feeling all sweaty, right?
It was exactly on days like these that I’d wish we women had leggings with pockets.
That’s why when Bliss Club’s ad popped on my phone’s screen on a fine guilt-free phone scrolling Sunday afternoon, I got intrigued.
When I visited their website, I couldn’t help but simply adore their apparel as they were customised for women who move; and supported all body sizes, reflecting body positivity.
To be honest, I found their community-driven vision really appealing and wanted to spread the good word. Especially with my colleague Aadhi as I knew she works out.
But before I could head to my WhatsApp and tell her all about Bliss Club, I wondered if they had a referral program.
This way, we both could earn some rewards so there was no harm in looking for it.
So I came back to the app, put my study glasses on and started going through their website but to my surprise, I didn’t even need them.
As I scrolled through their menu bar, I could easily find a ‘Refer and Earn’ section but what turned out to be really impressive is that they even had a loyalty rewards program.
“Wow, Bliss Club knows how to hook its customers”, I thought and continued my search to understand their referral as well as the loyalty program.
First, let’s start with their referral program, see everything that’s good about it and if there’s anything with scope for improvement.
Bliss Club Referral Program
If I were to describe their refer and earn program in one word, I’d say - Blissful.
“Really? What’s so joyful about it?” one may think and it’s because they got one of the most important pillars of a referral program right - content.
For a referral to work, it’s crucial that it reflects your brand’s messaging. Rewards are important of course, but with your competitors already trying to offer referral rewards, you’ve to stand out.
This is where asking questions like why should a customer refer someone to buy from my brand is necessary and Bliss Club got it on point.
Before we dig into this, how about we check if Bliss Club got the basic parameters of a referral program that Venkatesh Rao (Co-Founder & CTO) and I discussed in our Masterclass on building a referral program?
Let’s jump in.
Two-Way Referral Rewards?
Check! Bliss Club rewards a referrer with 3000 BlissCoins upon a successful referral and a referee with ₹300 off on their first order for a minimum purchase value of ₹1000.
Visibility and Ease of Invite?
Here’s the thing. There’s no doubt about the Bliss Club referral program’s ease of invite. Be it via WhatsApp, Email or link copying, customers can easily refer a friend.
But when it comes to referral program visibility, that’s limited from a customer point of view. For example, I knew all the places I found their referral program but a customer would not.
Customers land at your website from various sources where their priority is to shop or explore.
That’s why when it comes to ensuring that customers refer their friends to your brand, there are two ways to go about it.
To send external communications via email, SMS and social media
To add internal communication on the website via a banner or pop-up
While I’m hoping that Bliss Club would have done the first, I couldn’t see the second option and this’s crucial.
If we speak of making a refer and earn program visible, I feel Drink Prime does a great job because they show a pop-up at the app launch itself.
Content? Blissful.
Yes, I called their referral program content blissful because I loved the message. While most brands have a simple referral messaging that revolves around refer and win, Bliss Club actually put some creativity into it.
For example, when I tore down Rapido’s referral program, I mentioned that there are mainly 2 reasons I haven’t referred anyone despite being a regular user.
A reward of ₹25 off for the referee makes me hesitant as a referrer since the reward amount isn’t great
This makes me turn to at least why the referee should install the Rapido app and that messaging again is neither interesting nor personalised. Rapido referral message: Join millions of users in 100+ cities and ride with Rapido every day.
Alright now, let’s look at Bliss Club’s referral message and why it works for me as a customer.
Personalised: The message revolves around the referrer’s personal experience of using Bliss Club’s apparel
Talks about benefits: It shows why the referee should check their brand out by highlighting benefits such as comfort, good fit, fabric and of course, pockets!
Reward and referral link: Finally it talks about the reward and shows a referral link which redirects to the referral code, directly applied at the checkout.
Here’s how it looks for the referee.
Trackable? Yes!
I was quite happy to see Bliss Club’s referral program can be tracked by the referrer easily.
Trackability is another important aspect of a good referral program which helps a referrer check which stage the referee is at and nudge if need be.
Overall, except for their referral program visibility, Bliss Club has got it all weaved well. Next, let’s look at something that shines brighter than their referral program.
Bliss Club Loyalty Rewards Program
A good loyalty program requires a good strategy which revolves around 5 aspects.
Identity
Loyalty Rewards
Type
Theme
Communication
I’ve already discussed each aspect in detail in my article on 5 aspects of a good loyalty program strategy.
So upon seeing the Bliss Club loyalty program, all I had to do is check how good it is by mapping these aspects.
Result? Let’s find out.
1. A Loyalty Program Logo That Speaks
You know the first thing that I got curious about when I visited the Bliss Club website? It was a queen's crown which depicted royalty.
This got me curious and I immediately clicked on it.
2. BlissCoins for BlissQueen
Why do customers join a loyalty program? For exclusivity and Bliss Club enables it in 2 ways. One, by calling members BlissQueens as part of their BlissQueen Royalty Program and second, by offering them BlissCoins.
The smartest part is that this e-commerce brand gives 1000 BlissCoins just on account creation which is a perfect way to leverage the Endowed Progress Effect.
As a psychological principle of Loyalty Programs, it says that if you provide users with progress toward doing something, they are more inspired to finish it.
This is a great way to achieve ORM metrics and brand presence.
3. BlissCoins Points Loyalty Program
As self-explanatory as it sounds, Bliss Club follows a points loyalty program where customers earn points on certain purchase values/actions and redeem them while shopping.
Now the thing is, there’s nothing new about it, especially with other e-commerce brands doing the same. In fact, after a certain stage, it may get even more stagnant for customers to earn points. Even if they do, the chance of them redeeming it (given that you don’t hoard fitness apparel) is less.
Reports have also suggested an average person lets over $200 a year in loyalty reward points go to waste when they expire or go unredeemed. Moreover, the program is open to all and doesn’t require any registration which makes user segmentation difficult.
What to do instead? How can then a brand increase customer retention and engagement in these cases?
By switching to a gamified loyalty program! With brands like Myntra and Sephora doing it, gamification has improved registration conversion rates by more than 50% for 30% of companies that used loyalty gamification.
And I feel Bliss Club as a community-driven brand can perfectly fit gamification in their loyalty program. Here’s how.
Tiered Loyalty Program: Introduce a tier-based loyalty program wherein instead of everyone being a BlissQueen, there could be 3 titles - BlissDuchess, BlissPrincess and BlissQueen. Such titles or ranks enable competitive spirit, user segmentation and social status, all leading to better customer retention.
Discount coupons: As an activewear apparel brand, BlissClub could offer exclusive discount coupons post-purchase, on partner brands like CultTit or EatFit. Such a loyalty partnership would improve customer acquisition and engagement. Partner brands would motivate users to purchase Bliss Club products. For example, In 2015 Nike’s running app partnered with Spotify. They encouraged customers to create a running playlist and rewarded them with a free, week-long trial of Spotify premium.
c. Badges and leaderboards: Thinking out loud, members of the loyalty program could earn points for let’s say sharing workout snaps. This could be followed by earning badges and ranking up on the BlissQueen points leaderboard.
4. Loyalty Program Theme
A loyalty program must reflect a brand’s theme. From program name, and logo to colours, to feel and content, Bliss Club keeps it well knit.
5. Loyalty Program Communication
Bliss Club loyalty program is definitely out there. I could see it, under the ‘My Profile’ section and it’s also added to their Instagram bio links.
However, when I joined it, I didn’t get any welcome email, showing that their loyalty program communication is either not automated or delayed.
Build An Attractive Loyalty Program
A loyalty program that is attractive enough for customers to want to join themselves is a must and you know what makes that possible?
Gamification tools that let you create a comprehensive loyalty reward program which is hook-worthy, easy to create, engaging, trackable and customisable.
That being said, have to check out Flyy’s referral and loyalty rewards solution yet? Book a demo today here.
