The auction and charity idea is awesome. As far as the membership idea, I think a great blueprint would be looking at Dick's Sporting Goods. They have a reward system where you enter your email, phone number, and address which adds up points. (Roughly 1 point per $1, once you get to 300 points, you get a $10 reward. Also a cool way to implement this would be a Minted App where you need to create an account to have access to and having exclusive app only releases.
Spending $300 for a $10 reward isn't much value to me. however, I think you could steal a few things from the Costco membership system. What they have been doing clearly works.
Can’t think of any recent rewards programs that provided really good value. Perhaps you can start with after spending a certain amount of money, the Cx can earn free shipping on their next order or an extra set of stickers. I guess you could also experiment a bit with discount codes for loyal customers.
I think some form of points per $ spent is the most traditional way of going about it - I guess the question becomes some redemption / point value that makes it worth it. The biggest gripe that I tend to see about rewards programs is that they don't provide much incremental value. Shipping is certainly a great idea but all USA orders ship free and as we expand I'd love to offer free worldwide shipping
That’s true. It’s always something like every $100 dollars spent = $1 earned in points. I never get excited when I get to save $1 dollar. Too small and it becomes worthless. Too big and you start to lose lots of income. Maybe the best way to go about is start with a small / standard incremental value and go up from there.
I like the idea of a rewards system minted account. One system I kinda like is the chipotle reward system where each purchase gives you points which the user can save up for something bigger or spend right away. It gives the consumer the choice on how to use their reward for being a loyal customer. Idk if this can be applied to Minted when you want to make profit on every item. May have to limit to certain products. But I love the idea of saving up points for something big or spending them on something smaller like a pre workout
Quick question for you Marcus, any updates on a pastel yellow crewneck sweater been hoping for one for a while just wondering if that’s still in the works thx
I know that the yellow in this video wasn’t liked by the comments for the most part and it was suggested a more pastel yellow I was just wondering if you had gotten more samples. My gf and I were hoping to get matching yellow crews. Thanks for taking the time to reply
The customer experience when shopping with MNY is unlike any other, which is awesome. You can tell everything you guys do is driven to make a customer happy. I think an app or system that would allow for rewards and/or auctions which would be sweet, too. Not sure how exactly it all works, but I think the concept of Nike's shopping app and their run club app combined would an interesting idea, since MNY does have its own run club. It could be a way for the community in NY (and across the nation) to organize any group runs. Thanks for another great read.
Love the idea of a rewards program/system. The main rewards program I use would have to be Starbucks rewards where you get a free product (coffee) after so many purchases.
For Minted, I could see this as possibly a free essentials item after so many purchases but I also really like Hayden Tam’s idea with the ALD program.
I really like the idea of an auction to buy the more high end quality products, but how can you know whoever is buying the products are not just going to go off and sell them for a much higher price like some did with the jacket. The money will go to charity but the products are made to wear and be seen, so that would be my only worry. I don’t really have a set opinion on the rewards system, I’ve used H&M and they give you rewards for each purchase, I don’t know many points per dollar, but they do expire every year. That was something I regret not taking advantage of! And lastly, I like login/sign up option 1.
Hmm - I suppose I cannot know for sure that someone is going to buy the product and ultimately resell it but I am also not sure that there is anything that could be done to prevent it.
Do you find yourself using the H&M rewards points or do they expire without you using them?
You’re right, there is no way of knowing or preventing what will happen after the product is bought.
I think my problems with the H&M points is that I never knew how to use them so they would ultimately expire without me knowing. I would imagine that during checkout there would be an option to use my accumulated points but that didn’t happen, there was also no warning of their expiration date.
The best rewards program I’ve been a part of is the froyo place next to the tennis courts I always go to after practice. Each order gets you points and after 100 points you get $10 worth of froyo (which is basically a free froyo). I’ve racked up 100 points at least three times 😭
As far as clothing, the only successful one I can think of is Kendra Scott (they give you 50% off every birthday month, and I know lots of girls who love and use that every year). One of my favorite brands Archive the Label allows previous customers to be 10 minutes early to every drop (you email them your previous order number), which I love.
Is the froyo place like a punch card for points or is it a physical account type thing? If it is a physical account type thing, were you initially hesitant to signup because of that fact?
Kendra Scott is interesting - I had not seen that brand mentioned anywhere and I think the idea of discount codes + early access is reoccurring in peoples answers - so obviously something people enjoy!!
The froyo place is a physical account! It is attached to your phone number. And yes, I was hesitant, but to be fair, if it was a punch card, I’d be more hesitant because I would lose it 😭 also, making the account was super easy all I had to do was type in my phone number before paying like I normally would, so there really was no reason not to.
Haha yes, Kendra Scott is big in the south, I doubt the New Yorkers are avid participants 😂
I like the idea of having a Minted account where all purchases are tied to the account. A rewards program system that I like that could possibly be implemented is one similar to the Aime Leon Dore early access where customers who have spent X amount on previous releases are afforded early access to new releases a day early. This X amount would be set at something that is not super high like ALD, but at a point where frequent customers are rewarded by being able to compete for drops against a smaller group of people, a day earlier than the general population.
One of the only rewards system I use that actually has value is surprisingly the McDonald’s rewards system. With every purchase through the app you earn points that can be redeemed on a variety of items. The more you spend = more points = higher value/quantity of item you can redeem for. One feature I think is important is the low barrier to earn points. You can spend a dollar and earn points. My question is what would the threshold be for MNY to earn a meaningful reward? Will a customer have to spend $500 to get a reward or will every purchase warrant some type of reward?
Do the purchases have to go through the app for McDonalds? If you went into a physical location is there a way to still make sure that you get your points?
Im not sure what the threshold would be - something I need to think about a bit more and I assume do some math around the numbers. I would obviously want it to be something people use and find valuable enough
Yes, I think there is a way to upload your receipt if you go into a physical location.
In my mind, the whole points/rewards idea is basically just creating a hierarchy of consumers. Spend more, buy more, and you’re higher up the “ladder.” I think it’d be interesting to see this idea go beyond a monetary value where you’re trading dollars spent for rewards.
An example would be the NY Road Runners have a feature where if you run X amount of races during the year you get automatic entry to the NY marathon. This could be a cool idea for the Minted Run Club where showing up to events is rewarded with discounts or rewards. Thus trading member time/involvement for a monetary value.
Also, is the design email for the job openings still open/being looked at? I’ve been in the lab recently and was thinking about submitting a portfolio.
I genuinely like the auction idea. But would it be too much to develop this auction style product page into the current Shopify stack? You could possibly try an auction through eBay (trying to think of the least amount of build time for your team). However it would be hard to gate the product to only Minted users. But the winner of the auction could tell you via eBay message their minted account to get their points.
As for reward/loyalty systems, Ghost Lifestyle has the best rewards system I’ve seen. All products bought on the web store give you points, with the addition of bonus points through the rewards card included in each item. You can redeem points for gear, etc..
I am not sure how involved it would be to build the auction piece into the Shopify Stack - I have to image its similar to building a standalone application (although, admittedly I am not sure how involved that is either). I will try and put feelers out to developers / agencies and maybe come up with something.
Your point about ebay makes sense. I am not sure we would run into an issue of random buyers finding the pieces and bidding them up unless they have some previous knowledge of the brand (I could be wrong here).
I will check out the Ghost Lifestyle rewards program! Cheers!
I don’t have any reading material on this but my thought was something like REI. People can purchase from your website without a membership but also have the opportunity to become a member of the CoOp and with this comes the accumulation of points and access to things like raffles.
I am a fan of the REI dividend model for the rewards program. When thinking about purchases that can be made at REI vs other stores, I will always favor REI due to the dividend.
I like the simple idea of earning rewards through purchasing merchandise and even sharing links/social media plugs. Those rewards being a certain discount percentage or money to be used towards buying more merch.
If I could afford it, all I would wear is Minted New York 🫡
The auction and charity idea is awesome. As far as the membership idea, I think a great blueprint would be looking at Dick's Sporting Goods. They have a reward system where you enter your email, phone number, and address which adds up points. (Roughly 1 point per $1, once you get to 300 points, you get a $10 reward. Also a cool way to implement this would be a Minted App where you need to create an account to have access to and having exclusive app only releases.
I love both of your ideas around an application - the run club / run tracing community aspect is super interesting
I will take a deep dive into the Dicks Sporting Goods rewards program and see what I can find!!
Spending $300 for a $10 reward isn't much value to me. however, I think you could steal a few things from the Costco membership system. What they have been doing clearly works.
Also, you could have a virtual run club within the app
Can’t think of any recent rewards programs that provided really good value. Perhaps you can start with after spending a certain amount of money, the Cx can earn free shipping on their next order or an extra set of stickers. I guess you could also experiment a bit with discount codes for loyal customers.
I think some form of points per $ spent is the most traditional way of going about it - I guess the question becomes some redemption / point value that makes it worth it. The biggest gripe that I tend to see about rewards programs is that they don't provide much incremental value. Shipping is certainly a great idea but all USA orders ship free and as we expand I'd love to offer free worldwide shipping
That’s true. It’s always something like every $100 dollars spent = $1 earned in points. I never get excited when I get to save $1 dollar. Too small and it becomes worthless. Too big and you start to lose lots of income. Maybe the best way to go about is start with a small / standard incremental value and go up from there.
I know the NIKE app has a feature where loyal customers get access to exclusive releases. Maybe you could the same here.
I like the idea of a rewards system minted account. One system I kinda like is the chipotle reward system where each purchase gives you points which the user can save up for something bigger or spend right away. It gives the consumer the choice on how to use their reward for being a loyal customer. Idk if this can be applied to Minted when you want to make profit on every item. May have to limit to certain products. But I love the idea of saving up points for something big or spending them on something smaller like a pre workout
So many good ideas around points - could even have double point days or days where your points count towards a bigger discount.
I will continue to think about all of this stuff - all of the suggestions have been super helpful
Quick question for you Marcus, any updates on a pastel yellow crewneck sweater been hoping for one for a while just wondering if that’s still in the works thx
Hmm - I cant recall which exactly you're referring to. We have sampled a few "yellow-ish" type colors.
Do you have the video or a link to where I show it?
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRWHBtyJ/
I know that the yellow in this video wasn’t liked by the comments for the most part and it was suggested a more pastel yellow I was just wondering if you had gotten more samples. My gf and I were hoping to get matching yellow crews. Thanks for taking the time to reply
oh! yeah a yellow in the crew will be coming but probably closer to late spring!
I like all the ideas. Also will you be restocking on the 2 pack necklaces?
The 2-pack will be restocking!!!
When do you think?
The customer experience when shopping with MNY is unlike any other, which is awesome. You can tell everything you guys do is driven to make a customer happy. I think an app or system that would allow for rewards and/or auctions which would be sweet, too. Not sure how exactly it all works, but I think the concept of Nike's shopping app and their run club app combined would an interesting idea, since MNY does have its own run club. It could be a way for the community in NY (and across the nation) to organize any group runs. Thanks for another great read.
I think you're spot on - I would love to have a community aspect like a running workout tracker etc (could even have it get data from strava etc)
Nike has been brought up a handful of times - will dig more into it, at the end of the day I just want it to provide good value for the community
Love the idea of a rewards program/system. The main rewards program I use would have to be Starbucks rewards where you get a free product (coffee) after so many purchases.
For Minted, I could see this as possibly a free essentials item after so many purchases but I also really like Hayden Tam’s idea with the ALD program.
This is the first time someone has mentioned Starbucks rewards! - I thought that they were the gold standard for rewards programs!!
I think some mashup variation of all of the best rewards will be best - lots of people seem to like the idea of early access!
I really like the idea of an auction to buy the more high end quality products, but how can you know whoever is buying the products are not just going to go off and sell them for a much higher price like some did with the jacket. The money will go to charity but the products are made to wear and be seen, so that would be my only worry. I don’t really have a set opinion on the rewards system, I’ve used H&M and they give you rewards for each purchase, I don’t know many points per dollar, but they do expire every year. That was something I regret not taking advantage of! And lastly, I like login/sign up option 1.
You’re doing great and I love your products!!!
Hmm - I suppose I cannot know for sure that someone is going to buy the product and ultimately resell it but I am also not sure that there is anything that could be done to prevent it.
Do you find yourself using the H&M rewards points or do they expire without you using them?
Thank you!!! I appreciate you
You’re right, there is no way of knowing or preventing what will happen after the product is bought.
I think my problems with the H&M points is that I never knew how to use them so they would ultimately expire without me knowing. I would imagine that during checkout there would be an option to use my accumulated points but that didn’t happen, there was also no warning of their expiration date.
Also...the affect of early life stress on an individual is a fascinating topic of brain research (:
The best rewards program I’ve been a part of is the froyo place next to the tennis courts I always go to after practice. Each order gets you points and after 100 points you get $10 worth of froyo (which is basically a free froyo). I’ve racked up 100 points at least three times 😭
As far as clothing, the only successful one I can think of is Kendra Scott (they give you 50% off every birthday month, and I know lots of girls who love and use that every year). One of my favorite brands Archive the Label allows previous customers to be 10 minutes early to every drop (you email them your previous order number), which I love.
Is the froyo place like a punch card for points or is it a physical account type thing? If it is a physical account type thing, were you initially hesitant to signup because of that fact?
Kendra Scott is interesting - I had not seen that brand mentioned anywhere and I think the idea of discount codes + early access is reoccurring in peoples answers - so obviously something people enjoy!!
The froyo place is a physical account! It is attached to your phone number. And yes, I was hesitant, but to be fair, if it was a punch card, I’d be more hesitant because I would lose it 😭 also, making the account was super easy all I had to do was type in my phone number before paying like I normally would, so there really was no reason not to.
Haha yes, Kendra Scott is big in the south, I doubt the New Yorkers are avid participants 😂
I like the idea of having a Minted account where all purchases are tied to the account. A rewards program system that I like that could possibly be implemented is one similar to the Aime Leon Dore early access where customers who have spent X amount on previous releases are afforded early access to new releases a day early. This X amount would be set at something that is not super high like ALD, but at a point where frequent customers are rewarded by being able to compete for drops against a smaller group of people, a day earlier than the general population.
Early access makes sense. I can try and figure out where that threshold may be ($ amount or # of orders)
Ill have to do some reading to see what else the reward program offers
One of the only rewards system I use that actually has value is surprisingly the McDonald’s rewards system. With every purchase through the app you earn points that can be redeemed on a variety of items. The more you spend = more points = higher value/quantity of item you can redeem for. One feature I think is important is the low barrier to earn points. You can spend a dollar and earn points. My question is what would the threshold be for MNY to earn a meaningful reward? Will a customer have to spend $500 to get a reward or will every purchase warrant some type of reward?
Do the purchases have to go through the app for McDonalds? If you went into a physical location is there a way to still make sure that you get your points?
Im not sure what the threshold would be - something I need to think about a bit more and I assume do some math around the numbers. I would obviously want it to be something people use and find valuable enough
Yes, I think there is a way to upload your receipt if you go into a physical location.
In my mind, the whole points/rewards idea is basically just creating a hierarchy of consumers. Spend more, buy more, and you’re higher up the “ladder.” I think it’d be interesting to see this idea go beyond a monetary value where you’re trading dollars spent for rewards.
An example would be the NY Road Runners have a feature where if you run X amount of races during the year you get automatic entry to the NY marathon. This could be a cool idea for the Minted Run Club where showing up to events is rewarded with discounts or rewards. Thus trading member time/involvement for a monetary value.
Also, is the design email for the job openings still open/being looked at? I’ve been in the lab recently and was thinking about submitting a portfolio.
I like the idea of a "9+1" but for events that could translate to discounts etc... I'll think about what that would look like
The design email is still being looked at!
I genuinely like the auction idea. But would it be too much to develop this auction style product page into the current Shopify stack? You could possibly try an auction through eBay (trying to think of the least amount of build time for your team). However it would be hard to gate the product to only Minted users. But the winner of the auction could tell you via eBay message their minted account to get their points.
As for reward/loyalty systems, Ghost Lifestyle has the best rewards system I’ve seen. All products bought on the web store give you points, with the addition of bonus points through the rewards card included in each item. You can redeem points for gear, etc..
Hope this feedback helps
I am not sure how involved it would be to build the auction piece into the Shopify Stack - I have to image its similar to building a standalone application (although, admittedly I am not sure how involved that is either). I will try and put feelers out to developers / agencies and maybe come up with something.
Your point about ebay makes sense. I am not sure we would run into an issue of random buyers finding the pieces and bidding them up unless they have some previous knowledge of the brand (I could be wrong here).
I will check out the Ghost Lifestyle rewards program! Cheers!
Have you thought of a CoOp style membership?
I have not - I am not sure what this would entail? Do you have something I could read to learn a bit more?
I don’t have any reading material on this but my thought was something like REI. People can purchase from your website without a membership but also have the opportunity to become a member of the CoOp and with this comes the accumulation of points and access to things like raffles.
I am a fan of the REI dividend model for the rewards program. When thinking about purchases that can be made at REI vs other stores, I will always favor REI due to the dividend.
I like the simple idea of earning rewards through purchasing merchandise and even sharing links/social media plugs. Those rewards being a certain discount percentage or money to be used towards buying more merch.
If I could afford it, all I would wear is Minted New York 🫡
I appreciate you!!!
I think you're spot on - it's also a way to build in community related events down the road (exclusive releases, early access etc!)
Precisely! Pop up shops would be awesome at races or running stores etc. If you’re ever in ATL, count me in as a volunteer!
You could do something with a minted run club on Strava and use the API to use runners data for rewards etc
Also silk shirts for spring? 🤞🏽👀