Neiman Marcus Leverages Perks For InCircle Members
By Hannah Ash, contributing writer
From the Sears Shop Your Way program to Amazon Prime, the retail world seems to be focused on capturing members, not just shoppers. The benefits of membership for retailers are many. Memberships enhance the relationship customers and retailers enjoy while providing enhanced key data, brand loyalty, and driving sales. The benefits for shoppers are still being written and defined. Amazon Prime members enjoy a wide range of benefits from free video to free shipping. Costco members also enjoy a range of benefits from the obvious bulk buying discounts to emailed safety alerts sent to members who purchased recalled food. Members of the Neiman Marcus InCircle program are getting a new kind of benefit: an easy way to donate retired articles of clothing online to the charities of choice.
The luxury goods retailer announced it has partnered with online clothing donation company Fashion Project to offer InCircle members a way to donate designer-label clothing from the comfort of home; the service is being made available to all InCircle members, regardless of annual spending amounts. Members who live within 30 miles of a Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf Goodman store and who donate ten or more articles of clothing will receive in-home pickup from Fashion Project. For every ten articles of clothing donated, InCircle members will receive a store gift card for $100 (the annual limit on gift cards is set at $1,000). Though Fashion Project offers store gift cards to other luxury retailers such as Nordstrom in exchange for qualifying donations, the door-to-door service for InCircle members is a new and decidedly customer-centric approach.
One driving reason behind the push to capture more membership? Aside from engagement and loyalty, more membership means more shopper data. With shopper data, retailers can connect with interested consumers via a host of different sales channels. To win such coveted data and consumer relationships, retailers must innovate. InCircle Director Maggie Lewis comments, “With the InCircle program, we’re always trying to add more ‘wow’ experiences, more memorable moments for our customer.” Beyond offering members a new way to clean out their closets and donate to charity, the partnership also means a new way for Neiman Marcus to connect with its members. Lewis comments, “The idea is to tie it to a wardrobe consultation or styling session. The customer is getting something in return for it.”