According to a recent survey we did, we discovered that most of our clients have some form of loyalty VIP program in place. Assuming you have one, you need to monitor it.

What you are trying to do with such a program is to increase the number of sales of high-margin products proactively.

So what you want is a scientific list of what people that are using your loyalty VIP programs are doing with it. I strongly suggest that you do not just rely on gut feel and its not hard to get such a list from our POS software as it collects the sales information on your customers’ purchase histories. This allows you to identify what your loyalty VIP program is doing.

One report that I suggest you look at is "loyalty vs Non-loyalty sales", in cash register reports marked here in green.

Now if you go into it, although it has plenty of options, just keep it simple for now and put in the last 12 months and run it.

Now out will pop put a comparison list of exactly what the loyal VIP and regular customers are buying.

In particular look at the profit field, it is not uncommon now for over a third of profit in a modern retailer to be from these VIP customers. What is interesting is that they are much more profitable per visit than regular customers.

Now also there is a row there of %Gross Profit. This is for you to see what high margin items people are buying and to allow you to identify possible products for your VIP customers to buy.

Lastly, there is a row of costs so you can see precisely what these VIP customers cost you.

Some people to buy your products need a kick; some come anyway. A straight 10% discount offer as such is often killing your margins.

If you get an exciting product, this has proven to be a successful method. What you need is your retail email mailing list and point of sale system like ours that can handle VIP marketing.

Firstly send everyone out an email with an offer for the goods. Hey, we just have now this XYZ product.

Those that did buy send them shortly afterwards an offer to buy a second one at say 5% off. See how you go, if they liked one then they may want another.

Awhile later those that did not respond at all, send them an email with a 10% off 

If you are still stuck with stock after a while, well you have nothing to lose by offering 20% off to all.

See if you can do something similar in your business.

The idea being Instead of giving a straight discount, going through the previous purchase histories of your customers and then personalise your offers.

It will help you maximise your margins