LEGO© is so much more than a toy brand. The colorful tiny blocks are a global phenomenon and have opened doors for endless creativity for children and adults alike. Starting in 1949 with simple plastic bricks, LEGO© has continuously evolved, adding new products to its collection. 

One notable addition was the LEGO© Minifigure—small posable figures that brought the toys to life. This revolution opened doors for other creative brands. Brands like The Minifig Co., a DTC brand that sells premier custom-printed LEGO© minifigs, minifig accessories, and building kits.    

The Minifig Co. founder, Garett Milks, shares his experience building a passionate community of loyal LEGO© lovers. With a loyalty program powered by Smile.io, The Minifig Co. has encouraged customers to shop with them over competitors. 

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“Smile.io has the best number of features, and they’re easily accessible to all sizes. As we have grown, it has been easy to grow our rewards as well.”
- Garett Milks, Founder of The Minifig Co.

The Challenge: earning customer loyalty in a competitive niche market 

As a custom LEGO© minifig seller, The Minifig Co. operates in a competitive market, competing with a giant toy brand. Customers have a variety of brands from which they can choose, so providing an incentive for repeat purchases is vital. That’s where The Minifig Co.’s loyalty program comes in handy. 

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“We believe rewards are a major part of why people choose us over others who are in this niche. The customers see they get a fair return on their purchase and that we care enough to give them extra for spending their money with us.” 

The Minifig Co offers 1 Stud (point) per dollar spent on purchases. Shoppers can also earn points by signing up, celebrating a birthday, or interacting on social media. Customers can then cash their points in for a variety of rewards like discounts on future purchases or exclusive free products like drink koozies, pint glasses, fanny packs, and more. 

A screenshot of The Minifig Co.’s homepage showing ways to redeem points. It shows all the eligible rewards and the number of points needed for each. 
The Minifig Co. offers a variety of rewards—discounts and free products.

“The items we offer are generally exclusive to the rewards program, so everyone feels special using points for them,” Garret explains. “We usually brainstorm things people may use that we can have branded or off-the-wall quirky items that are too hard to pass up. Like the fanny packs.”

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The Solution: Make retention obvious with a seamlessly embedded loyalty program

The Minifig Co. configured a motivating rewards program to attract customers to its store over competitors. But simply having the program is not enough to attract, engage, and retain customers. 

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The Minifig Co. made its loyalty program extremely easy to join, effortless to use, and obvious to find. 

Not only does The Minifig Co. offer motivating rewards, but they’ve made the program hard to ignore by embedding loyalty content throughout its website

Points information on product pages 

No matter what product a customer is browsing, they’ll find all the relevant information they need. This includes how many points they would earn by purchasing the product. 

A screenshot of The Minifig Co.’s product page, highlighting an embedded App Block that says “Earn 4 Studs on this purchase. Learn more.” 
Customers know how many points they will earn for each product.

The Minifig Co. uses Smile.io App Blocks to seamlessly embed points information onto every product page. The branding matches the online store’s theme to enhance, not disrupt, the customer experience. 

The App Block also seamlessly uses the store’s custom points currency name, Studs, and automatically calculates the points based on the product’s price. With no manual effort, The Minifig Co. can easily keep its loyalty program information relevant on every product page with a few clicks of a button. 

Points information on the customer account page 

The Minifig Co. makes points front and center again on customer account pages. Since Smile.io automatically integrates with Shopify customer accounts, shoppers can find all their loyalty program information on their store account page. 

A screenshot of a customer account page showing a bright yellow banner that reads, “You’ve got 125 Studs! Redeem them for rewards.” 
Customers can view their points balance on their store account page.

When customers view their individual store accounts, they’re greeted by a bright yellow message telling them how many points they have, encouraging them to redeem them, and guiding them to learn what they can redeem. 

When a customer clicks on the “Ways to redeem” button, the loyalty program panel automatically opens and reveals all the rewards they can redeem and how close they are to the next reward. 

Integrating loyalty program information into a critical touchpoint in the customer journey is a great way to encourage reward redemption and motivate customers to make another purchase. 

The Outcome: 52% YoY growth in rewards redemption rate  

The Minifig Co. is cashing in on the value of embedded loyalty content. It’s evident from a user experience point of view how these prominent reminders are helpful. 

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“It’s helping people engage with our rewards program better! Getting to see the points earned on a product or your points balance directly on the account page is incredibly helpful,” Garett says about how his customers use the new embedded content. 

Using the embedded content, The Minifig Co. has achieved impressive results with its loyal customers:

  • 52% increase year-over-year in its rewards redemption rate. 
  • Active loyalty program participants spend an average of 57% more per order.
  • 893% more total average orders from customers who redeem rewards.

These impressive lifts in rewards redemption rates, average order values, and total orders indicate that customer retention pays off.  

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The Minifig Co. team puts the same attention to detail in its loyalty program that it does with its meticulous minifigs. After nearly a decade of trendsetting for LEGO© lovers, The Minifig Co. isn’t slowing down any time soon. 

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