A 10-week A/B test across the 2025 holiday season shows what happens when guided discovery and a rewards program work together: bigger carts, more returning customers, and standout BFCM performance.
By the Numbers
Across 350 guided orders over 10 weeks, every metric moved up and to the right:
- 39% higher average order value - $162.96 guided vs. $117.44 standard
- 56% more items per order - 7.2 items guided vs. 4.6 average
- 2.4x BFCM order share - versus typical guided penetration
- 61% returning customers - of all guided orders came from loyal shoppers
The Challenge: A Vast Natural Foods Catalog, Shoppers Losing the Thread
Country Life Natural Foods carries thousands of SKUs across supplements, pantry, and wellness. Loyal customers loved the depth of selection, but new and returning shoppers alike were getting overwhelmed: too many choices, too little guidance, too many tabs to keep open while comparing.
Heading into the 2025 holiday season, the team needed a way to help every shopper find the right products faster, surface complementary items they would have missed, and make sure their best customers felt rewarded for coming back. That meant tackling three things at once: catalog depth (thousands of SKUs across natural foods, supplements, and wellness), decision fatigue (shoppers struggling to confidently pick the right product for their goals), and loyalty headroom (existing repeat customers under-served by the default browsing experience).
The Solution: Pair AI-Guided Discovery With a Rewards Program Shoppers Actually Use
ShopGuide handles the conversation: answering product questions in real time, recommending complements, and building confident carts. Smile handles the relationship: points on every purchase, VIP tiers for top spenders, and referral rewards that bring shoppers back. Together, they turn one guided session into a long-term customer.
Smile rewards every visit and every referral. Points, VIP tiers, and referrals are built directly into the Country Life storefront, giving returning shoppers a reason to keep coming back and a structure for growing their relationship over time: points earned on every guided purchase, VIP tiers that unlock as customers grow, and referrals that turn happy customers into new ones.
ShopGuide turns browsing into a conversation. An AI shopping assistant meets shoppers where they are, guides them to the right products, answers questions in real time, and surfaces the complements they would have missed: personalized product discovery in-session, real-time answers to product questions, and smart cross-sells that build bigger carts.
Country Life Plus, Powered by Smile
A members-only program that turns one-time buyers into the brand's best customers.
Country Life Plus uses Smile to segment customers by behavior, reward redemption, and lifetime value. The data tells a clear story: members who actively engage with the program spend dramatically more than the average shopper, and tiered VIP benefits compound that effect.
Eight percent of the customer base, the "Redeemer" segment, actively engages with the points system. Redeemers spend $565 a year, +233% vs. non-redeemers, driven by 144% higher purchase frequency and a 37% higher AOV, and they come back consistently at 3.4 purchases per year.
Gold tier members spend an average of $2,451 a year, nearly 18x the base tier. That works out to 13.6 purchases a year at a $180 average order value. Tiered rewards create clear progression paths: the further customers climb, the more reasons they have to stay, and the more the program earns its place in the P&L.
Three things made it work: meaningful rewards customers actually want, a simple points system that's easy to understand, and tiered benefits that create clear progression.
Month Over Month: Steady Growth From Launch Through Peak Season
October - Launch: 110 orders, 57% AOV premium. Early adopters embraced the guided experience right out of the gate.
November - Growth: 188 orders, $30.4K revenue, 71% lift. Customers averaged 7.8 items per order, building diverse carts as they discovered complementary products.
December - Sustained: Maintained 17% AOV premium. Consistent customer engagement and satisfaction held through the end of the season.
Black Friday / Cyber Monday: When Stakes Were Highest, the Combination Delivered
Across the BFCM window (Nov 28 to Dec 2), guided sessions captured 2.4x their typical share of orders, with shoppers building meaningfully larger carts than the storefront average: $11.5K in BFCM revenue from guided orders across 79 orders during the five-day window, an 18% higher AOV during BFCM versus standard orders during peak traffic, and 8.2 items per cart.
Why It Works: Three Behaviours That Drive the Numbers
A returning-customer magnet. 61% of guided orders came from returning customers, the same shoppers earning points and progressing through Smile VIP tiers. Loyalty brings them back; guided discovery helps them buy more when they arrive.
A cross-selling champion. With 7.2 items per order vs. 4.6 store average, guided sessions surfaced complements customers would not have found on their own. Bigger carts, more points earned, more reasons to come back.
Punching above its weight. Guided sessions represented 3.5% of orders but contributed 4.9% of total revenue, reflecting consistently higher cart values among the customers most engaged with Smile and ShopGuide.
Better Together: Guided Discovery and Rewards That Reinforce Each Other
The two don't need a formal integration to add up. ShopGuide helps shoppers find the right products, and Smile rewards them for it, so customers get more out of every visit, earn more points, and come back for the next one.
Find the right products. ShopGuide guides shoppers to what actually fits their needs, so they buy with confidence and come away happier with the purchase. Better discovery is the foundation everything else builds on.
Earn more points, come back. Every guided purchase earns Smile points and moves shoppers toward the next VIP tier, turning a good shopping experience into a concrete reason to return and buy again.
The flywheel is simple: better discovery helps customers find the right products, the right products earn more points, and more points bring them back to do it again.
What's Next: Rolled Out to Every Customer, With More on the Way
Country Life has since expanded Smile from enrolled members to its entire customer base. Next, the team is exploring bringing ShopGuide directly onto the Smile rewards page, so shoppers can ask about points and perks in the same conversation where they're already shopping.
Want results like this for your own BFCM? The holiday season doesn't wait, and neither should your loyalty and discovery strategy. If you're a mid-market or enterprise Shopify brand looking to make this BFCM your strongest yet, talk to our team to see how guided shopping and loyalty could work together for your storefront.
