Building a Loyalty Program for a Vape or E-cigarette Store

As you’re no doubt already well aware, vapes and e-cigarettes are a booming industry, with no signs of slowing down. A vape loyalty program helps you retain customers and boost brand loyalty in a highly competitive market.

According to market research group Euromonitor, there will be more than 55 million people vaping globally by next year. Meanwhile, the global e-cigarette market is estimated to now exceed $20 billion.

When it comes to vape loyalty programs, it’s not as simple as offering customers a discount on every 10th purchase. For your customer loyalty program to be effective, it needs to reward various consumer behaviours (not just spending) and create a community around your brand.

We’ll cover all this in the points below, but first things first, let's delve into why creating vape loyalty is important:

Why is it Important to Have a Loyalty Program for your Vape Shop?

Depending how much research you’ve done, you might already be aware of some of these golden facts and stats that we loyalty marketers love to use:

While these statistics apply to just about any business in any industry, there are a few things unique to the vape and e-cigarette industry that are worth mentioning.

Vapers carry a much longer customer lifetime value than that of, say, a new mother purchasing baby products, for instance. Whereas the baby products supplier will lose that customer’s business once the baby grows up, a vape or e-cigarette store can retain its customers indefinitely.

As long as the shop has a good customer loyalty program, that is…

In an industry that’s far more competitive than most, businesses must go above and beyond to stand out from the crowd of vape and e-cigarette shops that consumers can choose from (both in-person and online).

So with that in mind, let’s discuss your options for creating an effective vape loyalty program.

How to Build a Loyalty Program for your Vape or E-cigarette Store

To create a vape loyalty program, you’ll first need to figure out a rewards structure. Typically, there are three ways in which businesses reward their customers.

Your next decision is which mechanism you will use for validating customers’ loyalty points and offering them rewards. Here are some common mechanisms for engaging customers with a vape rewards program.

Option 1: Merchant Scan Code (in-person transactions)

For physical vape and e-cigarette stores selling directly to the customer over the counter, a merchant scan code is a straightforward way to go about validating loyalty points and reward points.

It involves the customer downloading your shop’s digital loyalty app, and signing up with their phone number or email address.

The merchant keeps a unique QR code print-out at point of sale, and customers scan it to accrue points for their purchases in real-time.

For example, our spin on this method is the Stamp Code. Vape and e-cigarette businesses can subscribe to our award-winning digital rewards platform for as little as a similar cost of a monthly phone or internet bill, and this provides them with a digital loyalty app to offer their customers, and a unique QR code for customers to scan in order to collect stamps.

Option 2: Shopify Integration (online transactions)

Perhaps you sell vape and e-cigarette products exclusively through Shopify, or run a Shopify store in conjunction with your physical shop. Either way, many loyalty solution providers offer digital loyalty programs that integrate with eCommerce stores.

As an example, Stamp Me’s award-winning loyalty app will shortly be available as a loyalty stamp card for Shopify stores.

Not only does an Shopify integration save vape shop businesses time and stress, but it ensures you don’t alienate your online customers from your in-store vape loyalty program.

This means that a customer can make a purchase from your brick-and-mortar vape shop one week, purchase something from your online shop the next week, and both purchases will accrue loyalty points and count towards their next reward.

This is a huge “plus” for creating a seamless omnichannel experience for the customer.

Option 3: Product Scan Code (online transactions)

While this validation method is ideal for customers shopping with your business online and having their vape products delivered to their house, it also works for in-person transactions.

The idea here is that you (the merchant) place a unique QR code sticker on or inside the packaging of each vape or e-cigarette product that gets sent out for delivery to online customers.

The customer receives the product in the mail, opens it, and scans the code with the digital loyalty app on their phone to receive a stamp (reward points) for their purchase.

This is a remarkably efficient way to engage customers with a loyalty program without needing any software integrations with the online store, nor any physical interactions with the customer. Your customers can simply earn reward points with their regular purchase behaviours.

Option 4: Merchant Dashboard

This method, while possible, can be quite tedious and time-consuming. It’s best suited for small independent vape shops with slow enough foot traffic that the business’s staff can manually handle loyalty transactions themselves.

The customers sign up via the digital loyalty app and make purchases as normal, and the business owner updates each customer’s loyalty account in the online portal. This method could be considered more secure, as every single point or stamp awarded to a customer must go through the merchant him/herself.

Whichever option you choose; they all share one common advantage – a digital loyalty app.

When it comes to vape loyalty programs, a digital loyalty app offers countless benefits that help to create an enjoyable customer experience. These benefits simply can’t be achieved any other way.

To put it simply: when used properly, a digital loyalty app will become an invaluable asset to your vape or e-cigarette store. Reward your most loyal customers and keep them coming back with a proven digitalised strategy.

How so? Well, for starters, the Stamp Me digital loyalty app provides vape shop owners with:

• The means to retain customers and boost brand loyalty
• An engaging loyalty program that can be operated over numerous locations and multiple channels simultaneously
• A web-based dashboard to track performance, make adjustments, and attain customer data which can be used for targeted marketing
• Gamified features like Birthday Club, Scratch & Win and others for reward points
• The ability to send customers targeted communications directly to their mobile device via texts, emails and Push Notifications
• Countless other valuable attributes that allow you to create a community of loyal customers around your vape and e-cigarette business

And to prove we’re not “blowing smoke” (excuse the pun), here are just a handful of ways you can immediately drum up some interest in your vape loyalty program from day one. You can find a more comprehensive guide on how to get customers to join your loyalty program here.

How to Entice Customers with your Newly Created Vape Loyalty Program

Ever heard of blu Cigs? Of course you have! Not only is blu Cigs a heavyweight in the industry, but when it comes to vape loyalty programs, bluNation is the crème de la crème. The ability to earn reward points and benefit from exclusive deals mean that customers continue to stay fiercely loyal to the brand.

As we mentioned earlier, a good loyalty program rewards much more than just repeat purchases.

bluNation rewards customers with loyalty points for:

• Joining the program
• Making purchases
• Social media views and shares
• Product reviews
• Referrals
• Various other limited-time promotions and campaigns

By rewarding customers for engaging with the brand on social media and other channels, blu Cigs can quickly and easily reach a wider market and more business.

Not only that, but it’s not actually costing the brand any money, the way traditional advertising does. You can learn more about how to promote your loyalty program without spending a cent here.

Here are some things you can do from day one to ensure your vape loyalty program motivates customers to shop exclusively with your business and earn reward points.

1. Offer an Upfront Incentive to Sign Up

It might seem counterintuitive (or even absurd!) to reward first-time customers for their business. However, loyalty marketers don’t see interactions with first-time customers as a standalone transaction… it’s an opportunity to invest in a lifetime customer.

As our Head of Marketing Michaela Ward puts it:

“Among our clients, Stamp Me has noticed that businesses which offer customers an upfront incentive to join their loyalty program build registrations three times faster than those which don’t.”

Turn a first time buyer into a loyal vape customer by incentivising them early on. You can learn more about offering attractive upfront incentives here.

2. Personalize the Customer Experience

When customers use your shop’s digital loyalty app to receive points with every transaction, your business gains new data every time they make a purchase.

This data helps the rewards platform paint a picture of each loyalty program member, such as: customer preferences, when they like to shop, how often they make a purchase, etc.

With this information, platforms (like Stamp Me’s) can allow you to analyze this information and send targeted communications to customers based on their unique and individual preferences.

The vape loyalty customer who likes to try new flavours will be offered discounts on new releases, while the customer who shops with you online will be offered free shipping when they upgrade their basket-size, for example.

This is particularly useful for vape and e-cigarette businesses because of the average customer profile frequenting these businesses. Think about it - if your customer is using their vape every single day, they are going to be purchasing new products at regular intervals. Because of the addictive nature of these products, vape and e-cigarette customers are extremely predictable. Understanding and breaking this data means that you can begin to anticipate behaviours and provide prompts, rewards, and deals at just the right times.

3. Gamify Your Vape Loyalty Program

To gamify a process is to take an ordinary task – a driving test, exercising or even employee training – and make it fun by adding gaming components to it.

It goes without saying that this is an incredibly useful function to apply to loyalty programs. Perhaps that’s why marketing masters like Starbucks and McDonald’s have been doing it for years!

By getting a little creative, vape businesses can employ various gamified techniques to engage customers via the digital loyalty app in their pocket. Make the process of building vape loyalty fun for your customers by integrating a range of gamified rewards! Learn all about how to use gamification as a customer retention strategy here.

Speak to us about our vape and e-cigarette store loyalty program solutions today.

Stamp Me is a straightforward and intuitive loyalty platform trusted by vape stores globally. We’ve blended the classic “Buy X, Get Y” loyalty cards with a modern mobile app to elevate customer loyalty experiences. But Stamp Me’s offerings go beyond mere digital adaptation. The platform immerses your customers in a richer loyalty experience, introducing elements like ‘Scratch & Win’ games and tailor-made engagement campaigns. With our Push Notifications and SMS features, you can regularly engage your customers with offers, updates, or a simple hello to bring them joy.

With the help of Stamp Me, your vape shop can transform simple transactions into memorable experiences, leaving a lasting impression of joy after every purchase.