Dive Brief:
- Shipley Do-Nuts launched its loyalty program and app Do-Happy Rewards to all of its 340 locations, offering customers five points for every dollar spent, the company announced Monday.
- Customers can use their points to redeem 99-cent coffees, free doughnuts and kolaches and brand merchandise.
- The brand tested the program in early 2023 at its company-owned stores and received positive customer feedback, CEO Flynn Dekker said in a press release.
Dive Insight:
As of Sept. 1, Do-Happy had over 40,000 members, who typically spent 60% more than non-loyalty members and visited a store about twice a month.
The rewards program offers tiers based on the number of points accumulated, according to Shipley’s website. The lowest tier, Glazed, includes those who have earned between one and 999 points, with the upper range equivalent to about $200 in spend. Each thousand points bumps customers up a tier, from Glazed to Filled, then Iced, and finally Sprinkles, which includes customers who have earned more than 3,000 points, or about $600 spend.
Rewards options increase with each tier, with Glazed offering two doughnuts for joining, a half-dozen glazed doughnuts every 350 points and a glazed or iced doughnut on the customer’s birthday. Higher tiers offer rewards ranging from a weekly 99-cent coffee and quarterly rewards up to a half-dozen doughnuts or kolaches — a type of central European pastry that Shipley fills with meat and cheese — for reaching Sprinkles tier.
Spend-based tiers are a common way for brands to incentivize repeat visits. Brands ranging from On The Border to Subway have moved towards tiered redemption structures this year, as the variation in rewards offered by tiers creates a point of differentiation and can give customers a feeling of progression as they earn greater rewards. Dunkin’, the largest national doughnut chain, includes a tier called Boosted Mode in its rewards app, which is based on frequency rather than spend but still serves to encourage repeat visits.
Shipley’s loyalty app also streamlines online ordering for pickup and delivery, according to the press release. Channeling orders through its digital channels could offer Shipley greater control of those orders. A similar loyalty update at Domino’s was at least partly intended to retain customers in the pizza giants’ owned delivery channels, rather than through Uber Eats.
Shipley Do-Nuts did not immediately respond for a request for comment on whether delivery orders placed through its app would be delivered as part of a third-party, white-label service or by the chain itself.
