Introduction: Omnichannel retailer KrisShop has revealed a new loyalty programme called KrisShopper, which encourages members to ‘be rewarded for what you love’ through access to post-purchase benefits. The Moodie Davitt Report caught up with KrisShop CEO Chris Pok to discuss the biggest pandemic ecommerce trends and how to build customer loyalty in a world of seemingly endless choice.
The KrisShopper programme builds on KrisShop’s omnichannel capabilities and its ongoing efforts to find new and innovative ways to engage with consumers during the pandemic. The programme spans four tiers, each based on qualifying spend.
Members can earn up to four KrisFlyer miles per S$1 (US$0.70) eligible spend and double miles on their birthday month.
They can also enjoy complimentary services such as shipping and gift wrapping and early access to a range of perks, including exclusive deals, launches and promotions.
“KrisShopper is the result of months of trend-watching and data gathering, where we consolidated our hard-earned learnings to create a loyalty programme that has a place in today’s world of choice,” says KrisShop Chief Executive Chris Pok.
“At its heart, KrisShopper seeks to reward frequent shoppers for what they love by giving them access to a slew of benefits when they purchase their favourite products on KrisShop.
“With every membership tier unlocked, KrisShoppers also gain access to additional benefits, which includes complimentary services like shipping and gift wrapping and access to curated experiences and events. KrisShoppers can also look forward to a shopping experience personalised based on their preferences,” Pok adds.
KrisShopper members can enjoy increased earn rates across all KrisShop channels, including KrisShop.com, KrisShop on KrisWorld and Singapore Airlines Group’s lifestyle app Kris+, as well as inflight purchases on Singapore Airlines. Spending across all channels count towards qualifying spend.
Commenting on what sets KrisShopper apart from other loyalty programmes, Pok says, “I wouldn’t say that KrisShopper is unlike any other loyalty programme because it still carries the traditional features of tiers and incentives, which have proven to be effective.
“What is different about KrisShopper, however, is an added emphasis on value, which we know has become more important to consumers in the face of economic uncertainty. From the point of launch, we’ve made it easy for consumers to pick up additional miles through early bird offers, which they can use to offset future purchases.
“Additionally, KrisShoppers also enjoy additional savings on regular-priced items during certain campaigns, plus curated experiences like wine pairing events. As such, the overall programme is designed to create long-term value for our shoppers, in addition to offering them immediate advantages such as member-only perks and promotions.”
This emphasis on creating long-term value for KrisShop customers is a strategy that the retailer has embraced throughout the COVID-19 crisis. KrisShop has launched numerous localised campaigns, expanded its offering and partnered with grass-roots movements to reach consumers who were stuck at home.
For the past two and a half years, Pok and his team have adapted swiftly and constantly to changing consumer demands. Among the many standouts, KrisShop launched a Tech Fair, a ‘New Norm Essentials’ range and a cross-category Instagram Live Series to engage with Singaporean customers at home.
Thinking local, supporting local
Another key focus has been to bring Singaporean brands to the global stage. This commitment to homegrown brands was underlined by recent partnerships with Made With Passion and the Singapore Tourism Board. For Pok, Singaporean brands have plenty to offer to attract an international consumer base.
“Beyond the form and functionality of the products that local businesses offer, they carry with them traits associated with the wider Singapore brand, which include quality craft, adherence to and promotion of standards, and protection of intellectual property rights, among others,” he says.
“These, alongside the eclecticism inherent within local goods as a result of the influence of our island home’s unique and diverse culture, are qualities that are increasingly proving to be attractive for our international consumer base,” he adds.
“This supposition is doubly true in Singapore where local brands have a home-ground advantage and are progressively enjoying strong relationships with a growing party of patriots who have a deep appreciation for the made-in-Singapore trademark.”
This belief is what fuelled the launch of the Batik Label by KrisShop, a concept store which features a series of collaborations with both homegrown and global brands using Singapore Airlines’ iconic batik print.
“Batik Label by KrisShop has been a top performer with both local and international crowds,” Pok says.
“As part of our efforts to spotlight homegrown brands and the vibrancy of Singapore’s retail scene we’ve also onboarded a myriad of homegrown brands to our local-themed concept store, With Love, SG, which now features over 170 local names in food, fashion, accessories and more.”
Commenting on the biggest consumer shifts since the pandemic began, Pok says: “The most prominent behaviour change is the shift to online shopping. According to a study by market researcher Kadence International, 34% of internet users in Southeast Asia bought apparel for the first time in 2020, with 94% of new digital service users expressing an intent to continue with the service post-pandemic.
“Top reasons for why people have embraced online shopping include convenience, time-saving and cost-effectiveness. These indicate the metrics that retailers need to prioritise moving forward.
A willingness to experiment
With many parts of the world facing chronic supply chain disruptions and resultant product shortages, another prominent shift is how shoppers are more willing to try unfamiliar brands. Pok says, “Research has also shown that many are likely to continue shopping with these brands and are open to experimenting with newer brands now that they’ve developed a taste for it.
“It’s important for brands like ours to remember that it is not a given that consumers who have tried new brands will choose to stick with them 100% of the time. We’ve learnt that the key factor that drives increasingly discerning consumers to stay with a brand is brand confidence. This could come in various forms such as quality products, consistent pricing, seamless check-out process, and on-time delivery, all the time.
“Also, because of necessity, consumers have increasingly turned online for goods and services that were originally not part of the ecommerce catalogue. This includes items like sporting goods, where consumers in the past preferred to visit stores to perhaps test the swing of a golf club, feel the fit of a pair of trainers or talk through the functions of a fitness tracker with the sales associate,” he adds.
Pok points out that all these shifts have unlocked numerous opportunities for KrisShop to explore. “From a brand perspective, all of these have created opportunities to connect with existing consumers on a more intrinsic level and unlock a new customer base,” he says. “Brands that have been keeping their finger on the shopper pulse know that they must pivot in tandem with these behavioural changes to cater to evolving preferences and demands.
“KrisShop, for example, was able to build momentum on our ecommerce platform over the pandemic,” he adds. “We achieved this by widening our assortment of products by over four times and enhancing our services, like same-day delivery and gift-wrapping, to tick the non-tangible boxes that consumers now value even more.
Changing criteria for creating loyalty
Not least of these opportunities is how brands and retailers can evolve to retain and build customer loyalty in a world of endless choice. According to Pok, strategic rewards programmes will play a crucial role in building customer loyalty in the post-pandemic landscape. “Over the past two years, the way that consumers engage with brands has evolved significantly and it’s clear that this behavioural change is more than just a passing trend,” he explains.
“In pre-pandemic days, loyalty was measured in terms of purchases made regardless of price, competition or environment. This meant that other factors like availability of products and shopping experience were auxiliary.
“Today, however, the reverse is true. Loyalty today is very much about who has the best product selection and who can deliver the goods in a desired manner. This means that brands need to deliberately reset outreach efforts to maintain relevance, consumer-centricity and market share.
“A big part of this is ramping up on the shopper experience,” he explains. “This includes personalising messages so brands are not just communicating with customers for the sake of it.
“With KrisShop being an omnichannel retailer, we also stand by the fact that more channels lead to more opportunities. This is especially important in a time where consumers use multiple channels in their purchase journey, whether to view product images or find out how others are using the product, making it important to have a presence at every touchpoint.
“Recent studies have also found that incentives still do influence consumer purchase decisions, which means that strategic reward programmes will be more important than ever post-pandemic, to not just motivate brand loyalists but capture new consumers as well.”
Pok also emphasises the importance of data and insights in predicting ever-changing consumer trends.“At KrisShop where we retail a vast assortment of products across platforms, it’s easy to tell that shopping trends change quickly. Therefore, we are constantly monitoring data and real-time insights to put us in a better position to tailor our loyalty approach to targeted segments,” he explains.
Together is better
While building customer loyalty and adapting to changing consumer trends are important in a world learning to live with COVID, the biggest lesson Pok has learned from the pandemic is the importance of meaningful partnership.
“A key learning we’ve gleaned is that together is, often, better,” he says. “Partnerships have been a lifeline to a great many retail businesses in a season of choppy waters, with victims of store closures and declines in consumer spending counting on collaborations to stay afloat.
“We’ve seen that smaller, more specialty players have tapped on organisations with well-established ecosystems to expand their products’ reach. And bigger companies have looked to independent, bespoke businesses for their craftsmanship skills to produce unique products that can cut through the clutter.
“We have found ourselves on both the giving and receiving ends of this process over the past two years, and it has been a meaningful and rewarding way to diversify our offerings. In the way forward, partnerships – whether in the form of direct collaboration, affiliation or even distribution – will be crucial to building deeper engagement with customers through first-party and second-party data.
“Identifying the right partners will give a brand additional insight into their customers and help identify new markets or verticals to expand into.”
Since its relaunch in 2019, KrisShop has undergone a constant evolution to not just survive but prosper amid deeply troubled times. Pok believes that the travel retail industry, too, needs to evolve and strike a balance between old and new to meet evolving consumer demands in a changed world.
He says, “I think there needs to be a balance between reviving time-tested strategies of the pre-pandemic days and developing new ones designed for today’s demands.
“To provide an example on the former, airport- and inflight-only products are making a comeback. In the past, these travel retail-exclusives were popular offerings amongst beauty, food and spirits brands to capture customers willing to spend for a tax-free deal, a vacation necessity or a gift to bring home.
“Today, many are returning to this model with major brands releasing travel-only products. As consumers become more discerning and brand aware, however, these exclusives need to be far more elevated in terms of quality or desirability, to give consumers the satisfaction of knowing they cannot find these products elsewhere.
“In terms of new strategies, travel retailers will need to prioritise appealing to a new and emerging set of values amongst younger consumers. The new generation of consumers are increasingly subscribing to brands that are purpose-driven and socially responsible, whether they are shopping at the airport, inflight, or on the ecommerce channel of the retailer.
“This means brands need to show how they are aligning their selection of products and services to what consumers value, whether it is retailing goods from local communities or adopting sustainable practices.
“The delivery of these strategies is also equally as important,” Pok stresses. “With digital adoption accelerating by seven-fold in the past two years, it is clear that an omnichannel strategy is no longer a nice-to-have but must be the backbone of the post-pandemic business model.
“Consumers have already made omnichannel browsing and purchasing a part of their shopping routine, which means that again, retailers will need to create a presence for themselves across multiple touchpoints, to meet consumers where they are at.”
As a player that redefined inflight retail by embracing the omnichannel concept before it became a travel retail it-word, it is clear that Pok and KrisShop are leading the way in terms of retail innovation, ecommerce and even diversification. No surprise then that KrisShopper’s loyalty programme is causing such a buzz in the air and on the ground.
