Six Reasons Why You Should Offer Sneak Peaks & Early Access to Members Only
Offering members-only shopping perks is a popular ecommerce strategy. We’ve already mentioned the benefit of restricting your store to members-only as a way to create excitement and intrigue around the purchasing experience.
However, there’s more you can do than simply restrict a store to members. You could use your membership plugin combined with a storefront to offer early releases, betas, sneak peeks, teasers, and more.
Many people are willing to pay the price to be the first to experience or receive something, especially if others are waiting in the wings. You can use this behavior to your advantage to drive memberships.
Let’s take a closer look at why you should offer sneak peeks and early releases to members only in your online store.
Builds loyalty
Consistent early releases can build and maintain loyalty, as members will see it as a high-value perk to their monthly fee. Customer loyalty will help you maintain a base level of members and reduce your churn rate. Members may also feel more like insiders with consistent early access, especially if you allow members to communicate with you or each other about the sneak peek or release.
Test new products/features
Offer members early beta access to new features or products, knowing that those most loyal will be happy at the chance to give input. Valuable feedback from members can improve the product before it is released to the general public. You can offer this at a higher tier of membership, which can provide you with an exclusive, smaller group in which to test your product.
Gather early reviews and ambassadors
Early releases give members time with your product to fully get to know it before everyone else. Therefore, they can write detailed, thoughtful reviews that you can use to drive sales when your storefront is open to the general public. You can even exchange the product for free for a thoughtful review, or use an ambassador program so your most loyal members can share early access to recruit others.
Gives insights into purchase habits
See how many of your members buy the early release. This can give you a sense of the market demand. Consider it a soft launch. Did it do well with little effort? Was there hesitancy, even among your most loyal members? Purchase habits on early releases let you know how much excitement there is and how to plan for a bigger market release.
Non-members will fear missing out
Since early releases and sneak peeks can make members feel special, non-members will feel the opposite. Therefore, letting a non-member see that members get early access will immediately trigger feelings of wanting in on the deal. A pop-up can give non-members the scoop on what they’re missing out on and offer an easy link to also get access by signing up.
Buy yourself some time
Offering a sneak peek at a long-awaited product can satiate members while you work behind the scenes on the bigger release. This is especially true if you’re taking advantage of early feedback or review cycles. Let the feedback and purchasing habits from your sneak peek inform your launch.
Do More With Your Store
And as e-commerce sales are expected to hit over $6 trillion by 2024, there’s no slowing down in online purchasing power. Use this to your advantage to create excitement around not only your webstore, but your membership program, too.
While you can use WooCommerce to build your store, we recommend using a separate membership plugin to offer early access or sneak peeks to your members. You can put these items in a separate section of your storefront and require a login to access.
Try setting up a members-only store in a demo first to see how combining a membership with a storefront may work for you.