The story
How a brotherhood became a $1.67M revenue engine
Men’s grooming and beard care brand Live Bearded understood the power of community from day one. To reward its growing brotherhood, the brand introduced a referral, points, and VIP loyalty program in 2018.
Through a VIP program, Live Bearded has incentivized repeat purchases from its best customers, with 90% of loyalty-influenced revenue coming from its top 8% of customers.
The challenge
Differentiating from competitors with community
Founded in 2016 on the values of brotherhood, the brand has created a thriving brand community with over 325,000 social media followers.
When Live Bearded first launched, it wasn’t exactly disrupting its industry. Men’s grooming products have been around for a long time. The challenge in launching a brand in such a competitive industry is creating an emotional connection with customers.
Co-founders Anthony and Spencer decided to appeal to the “every man”. They wanted to create a lifestyle brand that was made by regular guys for regular guys. This authenticity resonated with people, and they were quickly growing into a brotherhood of like-minded beardsmen.
With customers who valued the products and the community, the focus shifted to rewarding these customers, and, more importantly, rewarding their top customers generously. That’s when Live Bearded decided to introduce its rewards program.
My favorite thing about using Smile.io is that it’s been a set-it-and-forget-it situation. Once you set it up and get it going, it doesn’t take a lot of management or time.
The solution
An integrated VIP loyalty program
Live Bearded created a lifestyle brand through authentic marketing, community events, and a motivating loyalty program powered by Smile. By including a referral, points, and a VIP program as part of its customer journey, Live Bearded has incentivized repeat purchases, increased basket size, and shortened time between purchases.
Customers can work their way through 3 VIP tiers to earn exclusive rewards like early access to new or limited-edition products. In October 2023, Live Bearded granted All-Star members early access to its seasonal fragrance drop and saw its highest number of point redemptions in a single day YTD.
With valuable rewards on the line, Live Bearded’s top VIP tier, also known as All-Stars, spends considerably more than the lower 2 tiers. Although they only make up 8% of loyalty program members, All-Stars generated 90% of all revenue with a Smile discount code in the past 12 months.
The program
Live Bearded Rewards
Launched 2018.
How it works
- Points, referrals and three VIP tiers
- Exclusive VIP rewards, like early access to new or limited-edition products
The outcome
Increased loyalty-influenced sales, average order value, and purchase frequency
Since launching its program in 2018, Live Bearded has seen increased orders placed with a Smile discount code each year. This Smile-generated value has increased year over year by an average of 44% annually.
Live Bearded’s loyalty program ROI is clearly paying off, with an all-time total of $1.67M in Smile-generated revenue.
Live Bearded loyalty members spend 25% more than the average customer.
The other key driver in profitability is purchase frequency. Live Bearded’s rewards program members who redeem rewards purchase 2.5x more often than customers who have never redeemed.
With an ever-growing brand community, Live Bearded is constantly adding customers to its loyalty program and creating more repeat shoppers. With Smile, this translates into higher conversion rates, average order values, purchase frequencies, and more.
The primary way we use Smile.io is leveraging the VIP tiers and really rewarding the most loyal customers
