We analyzed 3 platforms enabling you to set up a membership program on WeChat:
- User can have their own membership profile, keep track of order history
- Incentivize your customers to repurchase with membership points
- Expand customer base through referral programs. For example, three-layers revenue sharing systems so that users who make referrals get to share part of the revenue
- Enable to track users data based on their shopping behaviors
- Offer membership discounts
Youzan
Fee: free
Advantage: one of the biggest WeChat shop platforms.
Disadvantage: limited offline payment option (custom development required)
Website: https://www.youzan.com/
Youzan has a membership section that you can easily setup. The membership page can include information like: grade (silver, gold, diamond, VIP), order history, coupons and prizes.
Youzan’s membership program enables the following features:
- Member-only discount
- Option to setup free shipping for members
- Annual membership renewal
- Membership upgrade after meeting specific criteria. For example completing a survey, spending X amount, purchasing X quantity of products.
You can also monitor uses’ information based on their membership status. You can analyze data filtering membership information. This is a key feature in order to study the return on investment on discounts and membership programs.
Another interesting feature of Youzan is the possibility to build a WeChat store with zero inventory. Youzan has a platform for factories to list their product: https://fx.youzan.com/. You can list products on your WeChat store with a premium of your choice. The factory is in charge of producing and shipping products, and you will get the premium if you sell it on your store.
For example, you can add the following cup to your store, the factory price is 20, and suggested retail price is 29. You can sell it for any price and the difference goes into your pocket.
Kelaile
Price: 4,000RMB/year
Advantage: reliable offline payment solution
Disadvantage: does not integrate with WeChat shop easily (except for its delivery template)
Website: http://www.kelaile.cn/
If you have a physical store and would like to integrate in-store purchase with WeChat shop, then Kelaile is a good option.
Kelaile provides offline payment options: basically it’s a machine that connects with your POS machine and enables your customers to pay with WeChat payment, Alipay and Baidu wallet.
Users make payments through scanning a QR code or showing their QR code for scanning. They can also redeem their coupon in-store.
Here is a video explaining how this works:
Once a customer made a purchase, the information will show on his profile on your WeChat Public account. Customers can view the purchase history. You can also setup redeem rules and give incentives for returning customer to make more purchases.
Weimob
Website: http://www.weimob.com/
Price: 9800RMB/year
Advantage: three-layer sharing system
Disadvantage: inconsistent WeChat website modules; development required for offline integration
Weimob offers a complete solution for creating a WeChat shop, running campaigns, data analytics and membership programs.
Anything you have seen on your competitor’s WeChat account, you are likely to find a similar module on Weimob. The setback is that Weimob’s backend is constituted of many independent modules, each with different design elements. You can easily end up building a WeChat website with an inconsistent user experience.
The membership card section of Weimob is an independent module. You can see the coupon information, account balance, top up credit and view purchase history in this section.
Weimob also has an open platform where you can integrate offline purchases with the membership program. You can also import existing membership information through a standard Excel sheet. This O2O integration will however require custom development in order to integrate Weimob with the POS.
One of the most interesting features of Weimob is its three-layers revenue sharing system (available for verified service accounts).
The means that each time user A successfully recommends a friend (user B) to the WeChat shop, user A can receive part of the profit. If user B then recommends user C, then both user A and user B will get a combination of the profit. This revenue sharing model is only legal it doesn’t go beyond 3 layers.
Conclusion
Membership is a great way to engage and incentivize your existing customers to make a new purchase. Using the right referral coupon strategy, you can also expand the membership base toward new qualified customers. Local stores can consider integrate the membership programs from physical stores with WeChat shop to achieve O2O conversion.