#AsiaeCommerceAwards 2021 highlight: HappyFresh puts twist to loyalty programme to win hearts

With operations across Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand for the past six years, HappyFresh had acquired a strong base of customers. The brand wanted to build a loyalty scheme that would reward loyal customers, increase customer retention and brand love as well as drive desirable behaviour. By putting its customers’ needs first, the team launched the HappyFresh Loyalty Programme that ultimately won gold for Best eCommerce Loyalty Programme and took a finalist position for Best in eCommerce – Supermarkets / Hypermarkets at MARKETING-INTERACTIVE’s Asia eCommerce Awards 2021.

Challenge

With loyalty programmes being ubiquitous in the eCommerce space, HappyFresh faced the main challenge of creating a scheme that would bring value to business objectives and increase engagement with its customers.  

Solution

To address the challenge, HappyFresh wanted to utilise research and data to truly understand its customers. HappyFresh started off with understanding its customers through user research and surveys. The team then plugged the data into the RFM model to provide insights into what its customers were looking for in a loyalty programme such as ease of use and a strong sense of high rewards. 

The HappyFresh team then decided on the benefits that the loyalty membership should offer and came up with six categories with respective benefits that can be mapped against the required financial investment: 

The team also decided that the lifetime membership would be free of charge and customers can enjoy a free upgrade to the next membership tier once a certain amount of spending is reached. Loyalty points would be automatically earned with every order.

HappyFresh wanted the loyalty application to be free of distractions. Therefore, design features and communications were centred around the membership rewards. The entire design of the membership screen allowed customers to understand what the scheme offered at a glance. To increase familiarity, the designers leveraged on elements such as the look of a physical loyalty membership virtual card and coin-like icons that helped users immediately see the points they earned.

HappyFresh planned special campaigns to ensure that the programme catered to different segments of customers. For example, less frequent customers could reap meaningful benefits and be encouraged to continue shopping on HappyFresh while loyal gold tier customers were shown extra appreciation by providing them with benefits such as order pick-up service for senior shoppers and early access to deals and promotions. 

The HappyFresh team also personalised communications based on years of customer data in order to provide the most relevant information to the respective customer segments. This meant that loyal customers and casual shoppers received different content that focused on their main wants and needs. 

Execution

Prior to the launch of the loyalty programme, hints and prompts were sprinkled across the existing app in a non-invasive way to encourage customers to find out more about the loyalty scheme. Bonus points campaigns and point-earning information were placed on the checkout screen to emphasise the potential rewards to be earned for a seamless shopper experience. Points can also be redeemed within the same screen with a simple on/off toggle to further communicate ease of use without excessive information being presented. 

HappyFresh launched special campaigns so that customers can earn even more points by completing easy missions. This drove desired behaviours such as placing orders with a bigger basket size or earning bonus points by placing a certain number of orders in the same month. Seasonal campaigns based on festivals such as Songkran, Lunar New Year and Ramadhan were also launched to allow customers to “earn and celebrate”. 

To ensure constant education of the loyalty programme, mini games such as quizzes and wheel spins to allow customers to earn guaranteed bonus points just by participating without the need to complete an order were launched. These were designed to provide strong differentiation from its competitors where multiple interactions or purchases over a certain period were needed to unlock rewards. 

Results

The launch of the HappyFresh loyalty programme was a success. In the first 10 months since its launch, the loyalty programme saw significant growth in unique members and points redeemed. In addition, customers who have redeemed points at least once before were more likely to place multiple orders, ultimately achieving HappyFresh’s business objectives while increasing customer retention.