Web3 for Brands: Customer Loyalty Program For The Next Generation
by Zeeshan Sheikh
When you and your competitors run on the same platforms - Klaviyo, Shopify, Hubspot, etc - you are only able to compete on one thing others simply can’t copy: the relationship you have with your customers.
It’s one reason companies invest in loyalty programs and get so much value out of a well-executed loyalty program. While the customer loyalty sector was worth $8.6 billion in 2021, industry experts see it adding $10 billion in value by 2026.
Loyalty programs encourage repeat purchases and recurring revenue, and that builds familiarity and purchasing patterns that become a switching cost. When those patterns become habits, your competitors have to work harder to break them.
But when most loyalty programs seem purely transactional, and everyone in your niche is providing similar incentives for repeat purchases - coupons and referral codes - you need a loyalty program that deepens your relationship with your customers by aligning values and incentives.
Over the past few years, we’ve seen how the current (and next-generation) values have transformed, consumers want rewards that provide ownership and share in the upside, they want meaningful connections with brand culture and values, and they like to publicly showcase their brand affinity and status.
Web3 provides the building blocks to do the above through Digital Tokens (Non-Fungible Tokens, NFTs) and the public blockchain to create this new touchpoint that connects brand values with what the next generation values:
Ownership: Tokens transform consumers into vested brand advocates. These consumers “hold” or “own” a piece of the brand, which strengthens possessive feelings towards it (the brand is" “theirs”). The brand benefits from increased consumer engagement and brand awareness.
Connection: “Tokens-gated access” enables meaningful direct-to-brand connections. It helps involve token holders in the co-creation of content, offer “VIP” access to events, and drop exclusive products. It provides a deep emotional connection and creates lifetime customers.
Showcasing: Consumers accurate brand tokens to signal status and clout that are immutable and become part of their publicly-verifiable digital identity. Consumer showcasing expands the brand reach and generates referrals.
With the power of web3 infrastructure plugged into the storefronts you’re already used to, you can provide your best customers with ownership, tradeability, and identity in a way they haven’t experienced before.
How does a web3-based loyalty program work?
Customers are issued Digital Tokens that can be acquired by either purchasing from you directly or by earning them with qualifying actions or behaviors that are valuable to your brand. That could mean just showing up as a customer in the first week of a launch, leaving a review, meeting a spend threshold through purchases or subscriptions, or visiting you at a specific store or pop-up event.
These Digital Tokens can be used as a “Membership” or “Access” pass through Taco’s token gates: these enable access to new products before anyone else sees them, exclusive discounts, or other members-only offers. Brands can also reward customers with point-like tokens that can be redeemed for products or rewards, or sent to a friend as part of an organic referral program.
Here is a short video on how Taco can help you Token Gate a product:
NFT loyalty programs made easy
Web3 offers unparalleled freedom in how you execute your web3-based loyalty program.
Memberships, loyalty reward tokens, and token-gated commerce are three simple ways you can dive into web3 to supercharge your retention strategy, and get an edge on the competition.
With Taco’s end-to-end suite of tools - handling everything from the first mint to the everyday customer’s web3 wallet - you don’t have to deal with any web3 “stuff” as we make it easy; in fact, Taco plugs right into the tools your team is already used to using every day.
Want to know more? Tell us a little about yourself and your ambitions in the form below, and let’s find out how you could be part of the next generation of customer loyalty.
