Live Bearded is a men’s grooming brand that sells beard care and grooming products. Founded in 2016 on the values of brotherhood, the brand has created a thriving brand community with over 325,000 social media followers.
How did they do this?
Live Bearded created a lifestyle brand through authentic marketing, community events, and a motivating loyalty program powered by Smile.io. 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.
After more than five years of using Smile.io for its loyalty program, Live Bearded has achieved:
- $1.67 million in Smile-Generated Revenue.
- 25% higher average order values for loyalty program members.
- 2.5x higher purchase frequency for loyalty program members.
- 90% of sales from top VIP tier customers.
“Once you set it up and get it going, it doesn’t take a lot of management or time.”
“My favorite thing about using Smile.io is that it’s been a set-it-and-forget-it situation," co-founder Anthony Mink tells us. "Once you set it up and get it going, it doesn’t take a lot of management or time. From that standpoint, it’s very time efficient once it’s set up, optimized, and running.”
Jonathan Roque
The Challenge: differentiating from competitors with community
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.
While determining their positioning, co-founders Anthony and Spencer decided to appeal to the everyman. 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.
The Solution: an integrated VIP loyalty program
As a lifestyle brand aiming to help men look and feel their best with quality beard care products, it’s no wonder that Live Bearded’s loyalty program makes joining the brotherhood an exciting experience. With points, VIP tiers, and referrals, customers have multiple ways to earn and redeem rewards.
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.
“The primary way we use Smile.io is leveraging the VIP tiers and really rewarding the most loyal customers."
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.io discount code in the past 12 months.
Live Bearded takes full advantage of Smile Rewards’ wide network of integrations by seamlessly connecting with:
- Shopify Plus for one customer login, mobile-first design, customizable experiences, and more.
- Klaviyo for effortless promotion through branded flows, embedded content, and points bonuses.
- Gorgias for personalized customer service through access to loyalty data in tickets, and embedded Smile.io variables for automated support.
Along with shoppers who have created store accounts, Live Bearded has enabled Guest Earning within its program. This allows customers who use Shopify’s Guest Checkout to still earn points on their purchases. Live Bearded can then re-engage these past shoppers with the points balance waiting for them.
The Outcome: increased loyalty-influenced sales, average order values, and purchase frequency
Live Bearded has achieved a healthy ROI and obvious financial gains through implementing and maintaining a successful loyalty program.
Since launching its program in 2018, Live Bearded has seen increased orders placed with a Smile.io 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.
“The fact that you can just set it up and have a good program that runs on its own has been my favorite part.”
Between the engaging VIP tiers and motivating rewards, Live Bearded loyalty members spend 25% more than the average customer. When you consider the effects of AOV on profitability, it’s obvious that investing in loyalty has a positive return on investment for the men’s grooming brand.
“The biggest impact for us has been leaning into ‘You are All-Stars, and because of that, you get access to this before anyone else.’ That really works well when it is a truly limited edition product that will go away once it's sold out,” Anthony tells us.
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. When customers know they have value on the table through their points, they’re encouraged to shop more often.
With an ever-growing brand community, Live Bearded is constantly adding customers to its loyalty program and creating more repeat shoppers. With Smile.io, this translates into higher conversion rates, average order values, purchase frequencies, and more.
