Wholesaler Giant’s Contractor Loyalty Program Increases E-Commerce Orders by 319%

77%

of contractors participated

Total average order quantity increased by

319%

Program participants provided

665%

more monthly revenue

INDUSTRY
Plumbing Product Distributor

CHALLENGES

  • Encouraging customers to use a newly implemented e-commerce system
  • Re-claiming market share from prominent competition

FAVORITE FEATURES

  • Millions of reward options for easy redemption in an online catalog
  • Opportunities to earn extra points through completion of customer surveys or offering referral business
  • A daily trivia competition to keep participants engaged in a positive reward experience
  • An elaborate marketing campaign complete with celebrity spokesperson

The Company

Now known as the largest U.S. distributor of plumbing supplies, this wholesaler also a distributor of HVAC equipment as well as industrial products and services.

 

The Goal

The incentive program’s primary objective was to provide a long-term loyalty program for professional trade contractors. By leveraging the company’s existing e-commerce platform, the program was designed to influence contractors to order online, resulting in a lower “cost to serve” while establishing a tighter bond with customers through engaging communications and millions of reward options for making online purchases.

 

The Solution

The loyalty program included customer offerings to entice participation and drive online orders. Examples included:

    1. Discounts on services from participating businesses, including Spring, Office Depot, and Enterprise.
    2. Reward points for redemption in an online shopping catalog with millions of brand-name items as well as event tickets, travel options, and the ability to donate points to charity.
    3. A daily Trivia gamification technique for customers to test their knowledge and compete with other program participants

 

Building a program from the ground up, this wholesaler decided to incentivize a variety of program activities to make the reward transition seamless. This included rewarding participants for:

    • enrolling in the program
    • purchasing products on the eCommerce platform
    • providing valuable feedback through customer surveys
    • offering referrals as part of a recruitment campaign
    • maintaining a loyal relationship as part of an anniversary campaign

 

As a strategic priority, the program included a fully integrated marketing campaign to build awareness around the program, consisting of:

    • a celebrity spokesperson
    • print advertising
    • counter POP (point-of-purchase)
    • digital signage
    • online advertising
    • national radio commercials
    • email marketing

 

The Benefits

By restructuring the program rules and switching to a more popular reward type among program participants, this manufacturer was able to increase its overall channel visibility and collect more complete end-user data. Their results showed:

    • 77% of contractors participated;
    • Total average order quantity increased by 319%; and
    • Customers in the contractor loyalty program provided 665% more monthly revenue

 

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