△More content, click the image to enter the FMCG Weekly mini-program Low-unit-price, high-repurchase categories are very suitable for private domain operations. From an operational perspective, as long as senior management supports it and the organizational structure is reasonable for deployment, it can easily extend customer lifetime value and bring profit growth. First, let's look at a private domain GMV formula. Private domain GMV = Private domain user volume * Conversion rate * Average order value * Repurchase frequency * (1 + Referral rate) + Second growth curve GMV Excluding the second growth curve GMV from cross-industry cooperation and resource exchange, for this category, the focus is on increasing average order value, repurchase frequency, generating referrals, and increasing conversion rate. The low unit price nature determines that product profit margins won't be very high, so operational actions should be based on low-cost, batch conversion as much as possible. Deep one-on-one private chats are clearly not feasible from a labor cost perspective. Therefore, the corresponding operational actions are based on tiered community batch conversion, with membership cards to lock in customers, SOP product bundle recommendations within repurchase cycles, and referral distribution as the core.
Community Tiering: Fine-Tuned Operations for Users at Different Lifecycle Stages
To achieve high conversion rates, the ideal state is one-on-one private chats providing consultative services to guide conversion, but this would be extremely high in labor and time costs. Especially for low-unit-price products with thin margins, doing so would definitely result in losses. Therefore, it's necessary to use communities to batch convert and serve users one-to-many with minimal manpower. As far as I know, a certain brand that is widely recognized in the industry for excellent private domain operations has only a dozen or so team members but serves millions of users. If all these users required one-on-one private chats, the cost would be unimaginable. There are four types of communities, spanning the entire user lifecycle: Fan groups aimed at promoting purchases and cultivating high-net-worth users; VIP groups aimed at maintaining emotional connections with high-net-worth users and developing them into core loyal KOCs; Flash groups established for promotions, discounts, and benefits around specific events; and Theme groups aimed at enhancing brand-user stickiness and developing relationships. For brands, not every type of community is necessary; they should be combined based on brand positioning, category characteristics, and operational level. Additionally, it's important to clarify in advance that promotional benefits in the private domain should not be too frequent or significantly different from public domain platforms, otherwise consumers may think your products are inherently low-priced and that you're usually inflating prices to exploit them, which is detrimental to brand building.
1: Fan Groups
Fan groups focus on product recommendations, using scenario-based product recommendations, limited-time discounts, seeding, user feedback, and themed activities to guide users to place orders, cultivating them into high-net-worth users of the brand. The target user groups are two types: 1: Users who have just entered the private domain but haven't made a purchase yet, guiding them to complete their first purchase in the private domain. 2: Users with low purchase frequency or low spending who haven't met the brand's high-net-worth standard, guiding them through community operations to make multiple purchases. The value of such groups is measured by conversion, not by how active the group is. Brands build these groups for conversion, and users join to enjoy related benefits. Forcing engagement activities is meaningless. An extreme example: if no one speaks in the group, but as long as someone places an order, the group is still successful. Typically, brands suitable for fan groups have one of the following characteristics: 1: Relatively standardized product categories. Customized products require high upfront communication costs and are better suited for one-on-one private chats. 2: Low product prices, correspondingly low decision-making and trial costs for users, so seeing benefits increases the likelihood of conversion and ordering. 3: A wide product matrix with many SKUs, giving users options. With few categories, pushing the same few items repeatedly isn't very meaningful. Users in fan groups should have awareness of the brand and have been exposed to it, whether through online public domain consumption or offline store interactions, at least knowing what the brand sells and does. Otherwise, randomly pulling users into a group might make the group look large, but from the user's perspective, they don't understand the brand. After joining and seeing daily ads for XXX brand, they'll think it's a spam ad group, block it, not order, and even take actions detrimental to closing deals. For example, they might ask what the group is for or mock it. This requires operators to handle one-on-one, increasing operational costs; other group users seeing this may also be influenced. Based on this, there are three ways for users to join fan groups: users introduced to the private domain after ordering from online public domain; users introduced after offline store contact; and users referred by friends (with social relationships as endorsement, solving brand trust and awareness issues). Let's take online public domain as an example to detail the operational methodology for fan groups. When users enter the private domain from public platforms, the brand should quickly get them to complete their first purchase in the private domain, experience the Aha Moment, feel the value of the private domain (lower prices, better service, etc.), and develop the habit of ordering in the private domain. To this end, after users add the enterprise WeChat, the brand can send one-on-one private messages with exclusive large coupons for new users, first-order free XXX product quotas, first-order discounts, and membership trial experiences, using limited time and quantity as urgency tactics to prompt quick decisions. At the same time, push the fan group link and clearly inform new users of the value and benefits they'll get after joining, guiding them into the group.
1) Product Recommendations
Product matrix bundle recommendations in the community are often accompanied by benefits in the name of fan appreciation, commonly including: spend-and-reduce, spend-and-gift, buy-and-gift, buy N get N, discount N%, exclusive price, flat price, add-on purchase, etc. If gifts are included, slow-moving or clearance items can be chosen, giving users discounts while reducing inventory pressure. Different category characteristics lead to different user decision paths and corresponding product recommendation methods, which can be divided into two types: 1.1 Low-Awareness Products: Focus on Seeding For categories with low user awareness, continuous seeding is needed to let users feel the value and thus generate purchase behavior. Examples include beauty, maternal and baby, pets, and clothing. Take Perfect Diary as an example: beauty products have non-standard attributes. Recommending products in the community isn't just throwing links; it uses a seeding + flash sale model, with 1-2 days of content seeding and hired commentators to cultivate user mindset, then limited-time flash sales to drive orders. Before officially promoting the product, warm up the group by telling users the product type, value, price, limited quantity, and ordering time. The copy should be conversational, like a friend talking to you; selling points should be clear and easy to understand. Throughout the warm-up, pair it with real user experience notes and before-and-after comparison images, painting a beautiful scenario for users, making them feel they'll look great after buying. Meanwhile, hired commentators will occasionally step in to ask typical questions users care about or share usage experiences. Before the flash sale officially starts, publish a shopping guide in the group, recommending bundle purchases to raise average order value, and use copy like "XXX people have already added to cart, limited quantity, don't miss out" to create a hot-selling, tense atmosphere. At the flash sale time, commentators step in again, posting messages like "I got it" or "I missed it," leveraging herd mentality to attract potential buyers. They also provide inventory updates for products not yet sold out, doing a second round of seeding. 1.2 High-Awareness Products: Focus on Benefits For categories with high user awareness, there's no need to explain category features excessively; typical examples are retail and FMCG. Or some brands have very strong brand equity and are household names. In such cases, the seeding step can be skipped, and benefits and discounts can be sent directly. The timing for sending benefits should be based on user activity peaks and consumption peaks. For example, McDonald's, which we serve, has user consumption peaks at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. When users are deciding what to eat and happen to see McDonald's community recommendations with discounts, they'll be reminded and triggered, making it much more likely they'll consume. Therefore, McDonald's recommends products and sends benefits in the community before meal times—8:00, 11:00, 17:00—to attract orders. Similarly, Luckin Coffee does the same, recommending products at daily consumption peaks of 8:00, 12:00, and 16:30. The copy is scenario-based, like "Feeling sleepy in the morning? Grab a coffee" or "About to go on holiday? Celebrate with a coffee"... Sometimes they also pair it with positive user reviews from Xiaohongshu for light seeding.
2) Limited-Time Fan Appreciation Activities
Besides regular product recommendations, fan groups can also hold periodic activities to amplify value and increase user stickiness. Activities are divided into fixed activities and themed activities.
2.1 Fixed Activities Fixed activities cultivate user expectations and develop habits of regular participation and consumption. For example, McDonald's community has a free snack grab every Friday at 17:00; Miniso has a community day on Mondays with big coupon grabs. 2.2 Themed Activities Themed activities are held based on holidays, brand marketing, and operational data. For example, during the Spring Festival, push exclusive activities with category recommendations and copy centered around the Spring Festival theme. For example, for new product launches, coordinate with video account live streams for preheating and flash sales. For example, when consumption is weak or user activity declines, do group buying or strong discounts to stimulate purchases.
2: VIP Groups
Fan groups lean towards product recommendation and conversion, while VIP groups lean more towards emotional maintenance. Sell less, maintain more. When users reach a certain spending amount/frequency in the private domain and become high-net-worth users, the brand can invite them into VIP groups. They receive dedicated service, chat and interact in the group, get problems solved immediately, and through regular game interactions, social topics, knowledge sharing, and exclusive privileges, the brand narrows the distance with users and enhances stickiness. Ultimately, this drives them to become core loyal KOCs, produce UGC content, and bring referrals. The following activities can also be played in fan groups, but they require dedicated staff to operate; considering labor costs versus output, it's not recommended.
1) Game Interactions
Community game plays are divided into two categories: purely for engagement and for engagement + conversion. 1.1 Engagement-focused plays Around picture/emoji guessing: guess idioms, celebrities, fruits... Around red packets: compare sizes, guess rankings, grab the Nth amount, grab the Nth speed... Around dice: compare sizes, guess points, guess odd/even... Also lucky draws, quizzes, check-ins, song recognition, idiom chains... Winners can get free benefits (preferably brand IP peripheral items with unique value) or community points. 1.2 Engagement + conversion plays Activities promoting store visits: For example, during the Year of the Tiger, a giant tiger-themed doll is placed at the store entrance. The group initiates an activity for users to upload photos with the doll to the group to receive a doll, driving offline visits. Activities promoting live stream attendance: For example, when a live stream starts, ask the group to guess the price of the live stream product or the discounted product, reminding them they can find the answer in the live room, driving traffic to the live room, and those who guess correctly get extra rewards after ordering. Quiz + conversion activities: Before the activity, share dry goods related to the products and categories being sold in the group, extract knowledge points from the shared content as multiple-choice questions, do a knowledge review in the group, and let users answer. When users have answered enough, naturally introduce the product. Those who answer correctly get exclusive flash sale prices and extra gifts upon ordering. Plays should be as simple and easy to understand as possible. The purpose of activities is to convert users, not to stump them. Theoretically, engagement-focused plays can be followed by conversion content, but the chain needs to be designed well and not too abrupt. However, I personally don't recommend this; after playing too much, users will feel the games are just tricks for conversion and won't want to participate later.
2) Social Topics
Brands initiate topic discussions to create connections between users and the brand, and between users, enhancing emotions. Formats include roundtables, user story sharing, and share-and-reward. 2.1 Roundtables Post a topic in the group, based on products, brand, or hot news, and invite group users to share their thoughts and opinions via text or video account live streams. 1-2 days before the discussion, warm up the topic, invite interested users to prepare materials, and arrange some commentators to interact to avoid awkward silences. 2.2 User Story Sharing The purpose is to cultivate KOCs in the group, create links and relationships between members, shifting from official one-way output to two-way interaction between users. Therefore, invite members with stories, content, and brand recognition to share their stories, experiences, and expertise in the group via text live or video account live streams, not limited to brand products. The official side controls the overall content direction and tone, helping with output if necessary. Before sharing, do warm-up and hype to increase the sharer's sense of honor. The shared content can also be used as UGC for secondary dissemination in other communities, Moments, official accounts, and mini-programs. 2.3 Share-and-Reward Invite ordering users to share their stories with the brand and products in the community or mini-program community; purchase reasons, usage experiences, etc. Sharing earns gifts, and high-quality content gets extra XXX. Similarly, the scope of social topics should be as broad as possible, content as simple as possible, and every member should be able to discuss and express opinions.
3) Knowledge and Insights
Invite experts related to the industry and category to share dry goods via video accounts or community text live streams. Build an expert IP persona to make users trust the brand professionally, and for users, they can learn new knowledge and gain value. Additionally, knowledge sharing can also be done in the group in the form of text + posters with practical tips. Content that's too hard is hard to understand; too simple is valueless. The best state is content that's slightly above user cognition—understandable but not fully.
4) Exclusive Privileges
Users in VIP groups are high-net-worth users of the brand, so it's important to enhance their sense of honor and exclusivity. Therefore, emphasize the exclusivity of these activities to users, making them feel these activities only exist in this group and only they can enjoy them. The essence of a community is a social group; WeChat is just the online carrier. Therefore, offline salons and gatherings can also be held regularly, using face-to-face communication to greatly enhance relationships. Activities in VIP communities should have weak marketing nature, with as few conversion activities as possible, leaning more towards emotional maintenance and relationship building. Activity frequency shouldn't be too high; 1-2 times a week is enough. Too frequent will tire users, and for the brand, labor costs are high, and high-frequency activities can lead to creative exhaustion, making activities dull. Activities should have a schedule, planned monthly, given half a month in advance. Know what activities and themes are planned for this week/month to prepare materials in advance.
3: Flash Groups
Groups established around specific events, disbanded after the event ends. Suitable for promotional activities and live streams.
1) Promotional Activities
Regular benefits sent in Moments and communities have a light external stimulus on user purchase behavior; it's often a steady stream—users buy when they see discounts or have needs, but it's not urgent. Therefore, operational means are needed to intervene, stimulating a large number of users to place orders quickly in a short time, boosting GMV in the short term. For example, common group buying flash sale groups. On an hourly basis, short-term discounts in the group, leveraging herd mentality, scarcity effects, and urgency to achieve quick orders and batch transactions. Before the flash sale, recruit interested users into the group via Moments scripts, do group buying flash sale chains in the group, with commentators creating atmosphere, and disband the group immediately after the flash sale ends. The difference from fan groups is that fan groups are essential for regular operations, with low daily benefit intensity, batch operation, and low labor costs. Group buying flash sale groups are essentially an event with high benefit intensity, amplifying the event's value through group operations, but the downside is obvious: high labor costs, one operator can serve at most 2-3 groups per event, not suitable for brands with large user bases. Frequency is generally once a month, not too high; after all, it's a promotional event, and high frequency will tire users and disrupt the product price system.
2) Coordinating with Live Streams
If a brand wants to do a live stream, it can invite interested users into a live-stream-specific flash group via Moments and regular communities in advance. During the live stream warm-up phase, hold a guessing game in the group, asking everyone to guess the price of the live stream's hit product; those who guess correctly and order get extra benefits. Also, reveal live stream products and prices in the group, using reviews, authority endorsements, and supply chain backing to warm up, amplifying the value of live stream products and increasing user appeal. Before the live stream starts, use red packet countdowns and @everyone to get users to the live room on time. During the live stream, coordinate with the live room's pace, inventory countdowns, and push for orders in the group. After the live stream, announce the GMV results in the group, and do a second encore of discounted products, giving hesitant users or those who missed the live stream a final chance to order.
4: Theme Groups
Groups established around specific themes. Flash groups lean towards promotion, while theme groups lean more towards content, mainly to enhance brand-user stickiness and develop relationships. Generally long-term operations. Common theme groups include content sharing groups and experience officer groups.
1) Content Sharing Groups
Based on category characteristics and user needs, discuss and share around specific content themes. For example: for maternal and baby milk powder products, most users are mothers. Their common psychology is to give their children the best within their means, including food, drink, clothing, housing, learning... But due to lack of experience, they don't know how to do it well, have few friends to consult or exchange with, let alone learn from parenting experts. Therefore, from the user's shallow needs for the category to deep needs, they are: how to choose milk powder, how to buy maternal and baby products, and how to parent. To this end, brands can establish mother-themed groups, invite interested mothers to join, give them a space to exchange parenting experiences and discuss, regularly hold roundtables and user story sharing activities to connect mothers with each other; also invite professional parenting experts to share parenting knowledge in the group, including daily dry goods tips, weekly/monthly video account live streams... For example, there are many pitfalls in renovation; users may only renovate 2-3 times in their lifetime and generally worry about being scammed. Therefore, brands can establish renovation-themed groups, inviting experts to regularly share dry goods tips, excellent renovation cases, key points, pitfall avoidance guides, renovation tools...
2) Experience Officer Groups
Brands recruit experience officers, letting registered users use products for free to experience them. There are three application scenarios: 2.1 New Product Validation Before a new product officially launches, real user experiences are needed to verify if the product meets needs, avoiding resource waste from large-scale promotion if users don't buy. Therefore, establish a group themed around experience officers, invite interested users to join as experience officers, experience products for free, and produce experience reports. If product feedback is good, users can be incentivized to post content on Xiaohongshu and Weibo for secondary dissemination. 2.2 User UGC Collection Anyone who's done content knows that reviews and feedback produced by brands pretending to be "users" are far less natural than those from real users. Therefore, when lacking UGC materials, free product experiences can be used to let users produce them. 2.3 Batch Conversion Give users fast-acting, quick-effect products for free under the guise of experience officers to feel the value, and through group atmosphere, discounts, and limited-time high-priced profit products, achieve batch conversion. This play tests operational ability and labor investment. To prevent being exploited, users must first pay to purchase the product! After they experience the product and complete corresponding tasks, the staff will arrange refunds uniformly. The above are the four common types of groups in the low-unit-price, high-repurchase private domain system: fan groups, VIP groups, flash groups, and theme groups. There are also distribution groups for empowering and incentivizing users, after-sales groups with multi-to-one service... They need to be combined based on specific purposes. Methods to promote community activity, besides the activities mentioned above, can also be linked to a community points system. Each user speech, check-in, activity participation, and consumption can earn corresponding points, which can be exchanged for coupons, physical items, etc. when reaching a certain threshold. In the entire community operation system, I think the most important point is decentralization. Many communities have the brand doing centralized one-way output, with users just receiving and following instructions. Such communities are unhealthy; labor costs are high, users get tired easily, and the community will die quickly. The ideal state is a community relationship network built by members, with the brand as just one node, allowing users to connect and output content, achieving self-operation.
Membership Cards to Lock In Customers and Repurchases
High purchase frequency means high user demand frequency, but it doesn't mean users only buy one brand. For example, carbonated drinks are a high-frequency category with high user demand, but users don't just buy Pepsi or Coca-Cola; they also buy Genki Forest... Therefore, it's possible to screen users with high demand frequency, who have purchased the brand and recognize it, and recommend the membership system to them. Through continuous delivery of benefits and interaction, enhance their stickiness and recognition of the brand, ultimately achieving a virtuous cycle of brand and user value co-development. Building a membership system for low-unit-price, high-repurchase products has two major benefits: 1) Lower User Reach Costs In the private domain, there's an emotional account between brand and user. Every share, output, and value given by the brand is depositing into this account; correspondingly, every marketing push and coupon distribution is withdrawing from it. Over-extraction will deplete the account, and users will delete you. Every deposit costs money, so saying private domain can reach users at zero cost is incorrect. When users pay a cost to buy a membership, whether money or action, they develop loss aversion, feeling that buying without using is a big loss. Therefore, next time they have a need and want to buy similar products, they'll definitely prioritize the brand where they have a membership. Because of this, brands can continuously reach users and interact with them through various membership benefits, privileges, and personalized services. 2) Locking In Customers and Long-Term Value Membership is a zero-sum game. Every new member a brand gains means a competitor loses an old member. Think about your life: if you have a Tencent Video membership, you probably won't get an iQiyi membership; in offline consumption scenarios, it's even more so—after getting a fitness card at Brand A, you definitely won't get another at Brand B. Therefore, through membership, you can bind users' long-term value over a long period.
1: Types of Membership Models
Membership, simply put, means users pay a certain cost to obtain a membership identity from the brand and enjoy corresponding exclusive benefits according to the brand's plan. In the private domain, there are four common membership types:
1) Stored-Value Membership
Stored-value membership is suitable for high-frequency, long-term consumption industries. It helps brands quickly recover cash flow, but the downside is relatively few operational plays, mostly discounts and amount gifts, and users are scared by stories of businesses running away, making conversion difficult unless it's a big brand with strong brand equity.
2) Benefit Subscription Membership
Users pay to become members and enjoy benefits and privileges given by the brand within a certain period, typical examples being "88 Membership" and "JD PLUS." Users need to consume within the platform to use benefits, thereby increasing repurchase and amplifying LTV.
3) Growth Membership
Based on user contribution, divide into different levels and give different benefits. Contribution can be defined by business goals. For example, to encourage more consumption, divide by cumulative spending over a period. If development capability exists, community and mini-program activity data can be integrated with business goals to create a growth system.
4) Product Subscription Membership
After becoming a member, users can use or receive products within a certain period. This type has high requirements for product selection and repurchase. For example, QQ Music members can listen to exclusive songs; ffit8 protein bars subscribers receive monthly product deliveries...
2: Benefit Subscription Membership
Benefit-based membership has many plays, high flexibility, and low conversion difficulty. I think it's most suitable for low-price, high-frequency, high-repurchase categories. Users buy memberships because they believe the benefits gained far exceed the cost paid. Therefore, the design of membership value and benefits is very important. Brands do memberships to get users to repurchase and buy more. Therefore, membership benefits should be designed around promoting repurchase, maximizing between user value and brand revenue value. Subscription membership benefits are divided into 6 categories (also applicable to other membership systems):
1) Immediate Benefits Upon Opening
Essential. Value users can get immediately after becoming members. Mainly brand bestsellers and large no-threshold coupons. The purpose is to lower decision barriers through benefit calculations and create instant gratification. For example, Three Squirrels' 18 yuan/3-month benefit card gives a 12-yuan no-threshold coupon upon opening. From the user's perspective, they were going to buy snacks anyway; after deducting the coupon, they only spend 6 yuan and get a bunch of extra membership benefits like 10% off everything, four 8-yuan free shipping coupons, double points, etc. What a deal! Another example: NetEase Yanxuan's 149 yuan annual card gives a 5-yuan no-threshold coupon, a choice of one of four audio/video memberships, and the option to pick a brand bestseller at 0 yuan or a very low price.
2) Benefits and Discounts
Benefit and discount products, besides amplifying the value of benefits, mainly drive repurchase through free items, exclusive discounts, coupons, multi-points, free shipping coupons, birthday benefits, etc. For example, NetEase Yanxuan offers one free item per month, but it can't be purchased alone and must be paired with other products; an additional 5% off; daily product flash sales; daily free shipping; monthly exclusive 100-yuan discount quota, with users choosing from four coupon tiers—99-15, 200-20, 300-35, 400-50. Note: The threshold, amount, and frequency (weekly or monthly) of coupon distribution should be based on users' average repurchase cycle and average spending.
3) Activity Benefits
Activity benefits, such as regular (weekly, monthly) exclusive online member days, offline member gatherings... They cultivate users' habit of consuming at fixed times, increase memory points, and through exclusive activities, stimulate ordinary users to become members and give members a sense of exclusivity and honor. For example, NetEase Yanxuan's Pro Member Day on the 1st of each month, and 20% off every Tuesday. For example, Three Squirrels' Super Member Day on the 25th of each month, selecting bestsellers and widely appealing products for flash sales, and drawing free order quotas.
4) Privilege Benefits
Compared to benefit and activity benefits that directly drive repurchase, privilege benefits are more value-added, increasing members' exclusive honor. For example, free return shipping, instant refunds, 24-hour VIP exclusive customer service, SF free shipping, member-exclusive products (only members can buy), etc.
5) Referral Benefits
Referral benefits, besides letting users enjoy benefit value, also bring new users to the brand. They are divided into two types: One is user referral, acquiring new users through free membership trial cards. After becoming members, users get N friend trial cards for N days, which can be freely gifted to friends, with both parties receiving incentives. For example, after becoming a Three Squirrels member, you get a friend trial card; after gifting it, not only does the friend enjoy the opening gift pack, but you also get points incentives. The other is business referral, directing traffic to other businesses under the brand or third-party partners. For example, becoming a NetEase Yanxuan Pro member gives you a Harry Potter game gift pack from NetEase Group and a monthly card for Youdao Kada; there are also benefits from other companies like Xiangdao Travel and Wanda Cinema, amplifying membership value while generating revenue for the brand (usually CPS cooperation, e.g., users claim Xiangdao Travel discount coupons, register on the platform, and if new users, Xiangdao pays NetEase a referral fee).
6) Experience Benefits
Becoming a member makes you an experience officer, regularly experiencing products for free. Besides letting users enjoy benefit value, it also provides value to the brand for new product validation and UGC material collection. The above are common benefit types. Generally, to make membership seem worthwhile, at least 9 benefits should be included. Among them, immediate benefits upon opening, benefits and discounts, and activity benefits are mandatory.
3: Key Points for Selling Memberships
The purpose of benefit-based membership is to lock in customers, so the price threshold shouldn't be too high. Generally, annual memberships are within 200 yuan, and monthly memberships are in the 10-30 yuan range. Why do users buy memberships? Because they think it's worth it. Why do users continue to buy memberships? Because they use it well. Using it well means users feel the membership value exceeds expectations; how to design that was covered earlier. How to make users feel it's worth it? Before becoming members, users evaluate the benefit value; if they feel the value far exceeds the resistance they face, they'll join. What resistance do users face? First and foremost is the monetary cost. Therefore, some brands lower the first month's membership fee, like 1 yuan or 50% off, to reduce decision costs; others use the gimmick of "money-back if not recouped" to dispel concerns; in copy, they use descriptions like "benefit sum calculation" and "average" to indicate low thresholds. Second is trust cost, especially for brands with weak brand equity or higher membership card prices. Users worry about whether benefits can be delivered, whether you'll cheat them, whether buying is useful, etc. To address this, either sales take on targets and follow up closely, using one-on-one private chats with user stories and authoritative endorsements to dispel concerns; or give 3-7 day membership trial cards so users can experience the value first. Membership systems are generally recommended to users with high demand frequency, who have purchased the brand, and recognize it. There are three recommended scenarios: 1) Before Payment After users select products and before payment, recommend membership on the payment page, informing them that opening it will give a discount on this order. 2) Repurchase Users who repurchase multiple times (above average) are loyal users; reach out via one-on-one private chat or mini-program/message templates to recommend opening membership. 3) New Users Brands with strong equity can give a 3-7 day free membership trial card at the first touchpoint when users enter the private domain, using membership benefits to stimulate the first order. SOP Product Bundle Recommendations Within Repurchase Cycles Increasing user repurchase frequency is an effective operational means to boost overall brand GMV. Repurchase differs from first-order conversion; first orders target new users, while repurchase targets those with needs, who have bought products, and recognize value. The frequency increase should be based on the product's consumption repurchase cycle. Recommending right when users are about to run out yields the highest repurchase probability. First, understand the entire cycle from order placement, usage experience, to consumption completion. After calculating the repurchase cycle, recommend products 1 week before consumption ends (considering delivery time and stocking habits), using repurchase coupons, promotional activities, and points expiration reminders to drive orders. Actions to increase repurchase can be paired with services, making them more natural, less utilitarian, and improving user experience. For example, the "1, 3, 7, n" SOP rule for users' first product purchase. On the 1st day after ordering, ask if the shipping address is correct and remind them to check for delivery. On the 3rd day, users usually have received the package. Ask if the delivery or product is damaged or flawed; if there are issues, handle them immediately, and inform users of usage methods and precautions, showing the brand's warmth. On the 7th day, users have used the product for a while. Ask if they've encountered difficulties or have questions. If no issues, ask for feedback; if they like it, invite them to share usage experiences to produce UGC, giving corresponding sharing incentives. These materials can be used in communities and Moments for real experience seeding. Of course, if the product's effect is slow, extend the cycle, e.g., ask about difficulties on day 7 and get feedback on day 14. On the nth day, which is 1 week before the consumption repurchase cycle, users have almost used up the product. Ask about the product's effectiveness, and leverage repurchase coupons, promotional activities, and points expiration reminders to drive repurchase and stocking. If users have purchased a product more than twice, they're familiar with usage and precautions; to avoid over-disturbing, just remind them before the repurchase cycle. If users have purchased Product A multiple times but are buying Product B for the first time, re-enter the "1, 3, 7, n" rule, omitting the day-1 delivery confirmation. The above are standardized, replicable steps that can be automated via SOP tools based on preset conditions, reducing manual work. Repurchase cycle-based recommendations can increase repurchase frequency; to increase average order value, start with product bundle combinations: sell bundles, sell higher-priced items, and sell expansions. Sell bundles: Package products users need and have purchased multiple times, using discounts to encourage one-time bulk purchases. For example, 10% off for one item, 20% off for three, 30% off for five. This approach suits big promotions and performance pushes, quickly boosting GMV in the short term, but because user needs are limited and consumption cycles are constant, long-term GMV improvement is limited. The downside is obvious: it can disrupt the price system, harm the brand, and even be seen as exploiting users. Sell higher-priced items: As the name implies, beyond recommending regular products, recommend higher-priced items to users with needs. Sell expansions: Beyond the original product system, expand categories based on user needs and market conditions. This way, you're not limited to a single category's repurchase cycle, and it has less impact on the original price system. For example, if the brand previously sold coffee liquid, after expansion, it can sell drip bags, coffee powder, and even further expand to coffee beans, coffee candy, and coffee cups.
Small B Recruitment for Referral Distribution
Different brand tones, equity, and channel control levels lead to different referral distribution strategies.
1: Referrals
Similar to high-unit-price, low-repurchase categories, through focused operations on transacting users, develop them into KOCs and super users, letting them spontaneously speak for the brand and bring referrals. Suitable for brands with strong equity, high awareness, high price transparency, and strict channel price system control. To do referrals well, word-of-mouth is the result, and incentives are the accelerator. The core of marketing is the product, and the core of word-of-mouth is also the product. Word-of-mouth naturally forms when users use the product and experience the service well. In most referral scenarios, users recommend to friends or in forums/communities, acting as endorsers and guarantors for the brand. Especially in real-life networks, if the recommended product isn't good, friends might criticize behind their backs, straining relationships. Therefore, if the product itself isn't good and word-of-mouth is poor, users won't dare to recommend. Besides the product itself, beyond-expectation services extended from the product can also generate good word-of-mouth. For example, buying a NIO car is like getting a ticket to weekly free online/offline activities at local stores; free flights and accommodation for annual events; surprise care on birthdays, holidays, and anniversaries... On the basis of good word-of-mouth, incentives can accelerate user referrals. Incentives are divided into material and honor incentives, generally used in combination.
1) Material Incentives
1.1 Cash Back For each successful referral order, get XXX amount. (If the customer acquisition cost per ordering user is 2000 yuan, then as long as the user rebate is less than 2000 yuan, the brand profits.) 1.2 Item Rewards For each successful referral order, reward XXX item; for three referrals, reward XXX item; for ten, reward XXX item. I personally don't recommend the above two incentives because they make referral behavior purely material. This can burden the referrer and make the referred feel the friend is just recommending for money. Replacing incentives with points makes operations and referral actions softer and more flexible. 1.3 Points Brands build a points mall where users can redeem points for physical items, virtual items, and benefits. Each successful referral order earns XXX points. (Besides referrals, points can be tied to community behavior data; point value is set based on customer acquisition cost and product profit.) Note: Incentives have costs, so referrers must only get rewards after successful orders. To avoid losses from refunds, clearly state in advance that rewards are only given after, say, 30 working days post-order (after the refund period).
2) Honor Incentives
2.1 Identity Symbol Refer X people to become a brand referral expert, receiving a handwritten thank-you letter or certificate from the CEO or executives, and being invited into an exclusive referral expert community with privileges. 2.2 Exclusive Privileges Privileges only referral experts enjoy; since they directly bring users to the brand, their privileges are generally the largest. For example, exclusive discount prices far below regular users; lifetime after-sales; holiday custom gifts; offline salon activities; factory tours...
2: Agent Distribution
Develop users into brand agents, with the brand providing incentive policies and empowerment support, letting users sell for the brand. Its essence is selling a money-making concept, making users think they can earn the most money with minimal effort. Suitable for brands with high product profit margins and low price perception. (The following is a brief overview of the agent distribution system; actual operations are complex, testing operational and human insight abilities, and require risk avoidance. Generally not recommended.) The core of the entire agent system lies in:
1) There's Money to Be Made
What's the purpose of being an agent? No profit, no early rising; the most direct is making money. Therefore, brands need to set up corresponding commission and hierarchy systems. 1.1 Direct Sales The price difference for each direct product sale. Its purpose is to get users to sell. 1.2 Referral Bonus For each subordinate developed, the brand gives a referral reward. Its purpose is to get users to develop subordinates and grow the distribution group. 1.3 Differential Bonus Differential bonuses are divided into two types. One is product price difference. For example, Level A gets products at 10% of the original price, Level B at 15%. Each time B restocks, Level A gets a 5% difference. The other is reward differential. Reaching specific sales amounts within a year earns additional dividends. (For ease of calculation and understanding, simplified and rounded below.) For example, if a team achieves 25 million within a year, they get a 10% dividend. At 15 million, 8%. At 10 million, 5%. Assume C and their subordinate team just hit 25 million, earning a 2.5 million dividend. Assume C doesn't sell but develops 2 subordinates who hit 15 million and 10 million, earning 1.2 million and 500,000 respectively. Then C's differential bonus from these two subordinates alone is 2.5 million - 1.2 million - 500,000 = 800,000. Additionally, if there's a promotion system, set up a peer bonus. When A's subordinate B is promoted to the same level as A, the brand gives a peer bonus to subsidize A.
2) Easy to Earn
With the commission system in place, users know they can earn money, but whether they actually take action depends on how easy the money is to earn. Therefore, brands should establish a business school, providing as much empowerment as possible to make earning simple, or appear simple. 2.1 Training Empowerment Through online courses, training camps, live lectures, and offline closed-door meetings, make users feel that becoming part of the organization makes earning money easy. Including but not limited to: For newcomers: product/project introduction, market dividends, system explanation, success case sharing, joining policies... For improvement: product/project packaging, traffic generation methods, conversion methods, subordinate development methods, deal-closing methods, team management methods... 2.2 Material Empowerment Brands create materials and distribute them to users, reducing users' operational and creative costs; they can promote immediately upon receipt. Including but not limited to: At the equity level: celebrity endorsements, honor awards, authority certificates, review reports, news media, online/offline activities... At the promotion level: product soft articles, selling point organization, efficacy value, user stories, agent recruitment, success cases... The above is the private domain playbook for low-unit-price, high-repurchase categories—based on tiered community batch conversion, with membership cards to lock in customers, SOP product bundle recommendations within repurchase cycles, and referral distribution as the core. Source: Tomato Operations (ID: chensanshi33) -END-