As someone who spends a lot of time thinking about retention and loyalty, it’s clear to me that EB Games has a strong rewards program.  As someone who spends a lot of time gaming…, I can definitely confirm this is true.

With their Edge Rewards Program, EB Games has reached a new level of customer experience and their customers are all the better for it. But what exactly makes Edge Rewards such a winning loyalty program? While I could tell you it’s easy to find, easy to understand, and easy to use, that can’t be all there is to this program.  In order to take my loyalty (and gaming) game to the next level, I decided to buckle down to determine whether this program’s a tough boss battle or an easy win.

How Edge Rewards Levels Up

At a glance, I can tell that Edge Rewards is playing the loyalty program game on easy mode. Lucky for you, this game comes with an instructions manual. Let’s see how Edge Rewards levels up on loyalty.

1. Easy to Understand

To help their customers understand exactly what their program is all about, EB Games uses a time-honored classic: the explainer page. Explainer pages are a brilliant tool for answering the question of “How do I join your loyalty program?” and the equally important “Why should I join your program?”.  Clearly, EB Games may have read up on how to create a great loyalty explainer page because their Edge Rewards’ page is doing everything right.

edge rewards welcome

When a customer lands on the Edge Rewards explainer page, they are in for a treat. A dark, minimalist background draws the customer’s eyes immediately to the foreground where the most important pieces of information (the welcome message and the registration process) are ready to greet them. What really stood out to me, though, is their explanation of how a visitor can become a member.

edge rewards how to become

Edge Rewards has broken down the process of joining their loyalty program to five words: sign up, confirm email, and print. No matter how strapped for time or distracted a customer might be, they can still understand the registration process at a glance. This increases the likelihood of them signing up, launching Edge Rewards’ engagement metrics through the roof.

edge rewards tiers

The rest of the page is devoted to describing how the program delivers value, and if explainer pages were a videogame this would be where Edge Rewards used a power-up.  EB Games has included everything from a quick and easy how-to-earn graphic to a comprehensive table that explains each of the different benefits and what customer tier they are unlocked at. As a customer, I don’t just know how to join and why, I also know that I need to reach the Onyx Edge level before Christmas!

As you can see, the Edge Rewards explainer page is a perfect example of how to leave no doubt in a customer’s mind that they can and should be a member of your rewards program.

2. Multiple Ways to Earn Rewards

How do you make a loyalty program easy to use? Simple: give customers lots of ways to earn rewards. When a customer finds it easy to earn points and engage with your loyalty program they are much more likely to redeem those points and experience the full value your awesome loyalty program has to offer.

edge rewards average 3 actions

In fact, in our e–book on analyzing ecommerce loyalty rates, we explain how average loyalty program rewards customers for 3 actions, while the top quarter of loyalty programs reward for 5.5 actions. This may not seem like a large difference, but that increase of 2.5 actions translates into a 10% lift in redemption rates for loyalty points.

With an 7 unique ways for customers to earn points, Edge Rewards is already cruising to the top 25% of great loyalty programs. In Hubspot’s tips to creating a strong loyalty program two of the seven tips are dedicated to providing variety in the ways customers are able to earn and spend points. In With Edge Rewards, not only do customers earn points for purchasing products but they can also earn points depending on the type of products they buy.

edge rewards collect points

Let me give you an example.  Let’s say I’d like to buy a new game. Most new titles retail somewhere around $70 so as an Edge Rewards member I’m already looking at 70 points. If I trade in one of my old games, Edge Rewards actually allows me to earn additional points. So if  I trade in one of my old games for $20 that earns me an additional 40 points.

edge rewards layers

Now let’s take this even further and imagine that instead of waiting until this new game comes out, I actually pre-order the title… you guessed it!  Even more points. What started off as a simple purchase has given me the opportunity to earn points in three different ways.

By giving their customers multiple ways to earn rewards, EB Games has created a powerful rewards program that actually works for their customers.

3. EB Games Makes Edge Rewards Easy to Love

Often, brands are so concerned with how to get their customers to find, understand and use their loyalty programs that they forget to think about how customers feel about the program once they’re members. This is an easy trap to fall into, but a potentially fatal one for the success of your rewards program.  In other words, this is the boss battle of loyalty programs. EB Games, however, gives you the Edge with a great cheat code – starting with the name.

The “edge” is a theme that EB Game’s target market can easily identify with. Gamers frequently find themselves on the fringes of popular culture and the leading edge of technology. What better way to resonate with a group of gamers and tech enthusiasts than by inviting them to be members of this “edge”?

EB Games doesn’t stop at the name, though – even their FAQs are dripping with personality! This humorous and friendly tone helps to develop the feel of the brand and allows it to connect with customers.

edge rewards FAQ

By promoting their brand’s personality in every phase of the onboarding process, EB Games has ensured that their customers know exactly who they are and what they stand for: fun, approachable, and on the edge of something really cool.

How Edge Rewards Loses A Life

No matter how good a gamer you are, sometimes you mess up and lose a life.  Unfortunately, Edge Rewards is no exception, as they still seem to be having a little bit of trouble getting around some tricky obstacles.

1. Excessive Program Elements

While the Edge Rewards explainer page is a fantastic example of making a program seem simple, there’s still a lot of extra and, quite frankly, unnecessary information included.  EB Games could stand to benefit from simplifying the rewards tree for its customers as fourteen levels or rewards split over four tiers of prestige can be a little difficult to digest even when it’s mapped onto a great table for easy consumption.

edge rewards tiers and rewards

By bundling similar rewards (like the pre-order Hold and the satisfaction exchange) or condensing their four member tiers to three, EB games can create a simpler program for users to understand without removing any of the value their users receive. Motivating customers is a delicate art, one that leaves no room for confusion. If a customer becomes overwhelmed by an explainer page they are likely to navigate away from it without registering for the program.

EB Games has a strong explainer page and an even stronger rewards program but tightening up the rewards tree could go a long way to helping them convert their customers.

2. Lack of Social Engagement

EB Games makes an admirable effort to provide their customers with a variety of ways to earn points with purchase behaviours and one time ‘bonus offers’. But while they clearly know how important it is to give customers multiple ways to earn rewards, they’ve actually missed a great opportunity in their rewards structure.

Directly beside the breakdown of ways to earn points, the website makes a brief plea for gamers to engage with them on social media.

edge rewards social media

While it’s a great idea to ask customers to follow your brand, it’d be even more effective if you give them a reason to. By not including social media follows in their rewards structure, EB Games has missed out on an opportunity to boost the completion rate of this ask while simultaneously delighting their highest value customers. It’s a well-known fact that social media engagement is vital to success in ecommerce, and EB Games could easily strengthen their Edge Rewards program by rewarding customers for getting social with the brand.

3. Explainer Page Below the Fold

To be honest, this last point is a little nit-picky but when you’ve got a loyalty program as strong as Edge Rewards the little things can make a big impact. When a customer navigates to the Edge explainer page they are greeted by a well-designed graphic that urges games to “get the edge”. While this welcome message is a great first impression for the Edge Rewards program, it takes up a lot of valuable real estate at the top of the explainer page.

edge rewards get the edge

This pushes the rest of the actionable content down ”below the fold” and actually causes the three step sign-in process to be hidden on all but the largest of display screens.

While this may seem like a trivial issue, brands should make every effort possible to reduce friction on a customer’s path to any valuable action. It sounds ludicrous, but the effort required to scroll down a page may be the difference between a visitor to your site becoming a member of your loyalty program. By reducing the size of the welcome message, EB Games can economize their valuable screen space and show customers more of the information that they came to see.

Achievement Unlocked: Securing Customer Loyalty With Edge Rewards

There are a lot of elements that go into creating an amazing loyalty program and EB Games’ Edge Rewards is a great example of customer loyalty done right. By making every phase of their loyalty experience easy, they’re turning visitors into enthusiastic Edge members at industry leading rates. While every element of their program might not be perfect it’s clear to see that if great loyalty programs are a game, Edge Rewards is winning.