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Foot Locker has rolled out a refreshed loyalty program as the company looks to grow annual sales to more than $9.5 billion by 2028.
The reinvigorated FLX Rewards program, which launches across the U.S. on Tuesday, allows members to accrue points towards future purchases and provides access to exclusive products, free returns and upgraded birthday gifts. The program featured three tiers of membership levels to engage with a wider swath of consumers outside of the traditional sneakerhead lane.
As such, Foot Locker is targeting 50 percent loyalty penetration by 2026 with a long-term goal of 70 percent.
“The program will continue to engage that core sneakerhead consumer with the benefits of product access and these once-in-a-lifetime sneaker experiences,” Foot Locker’s chief customer officer Kim Waldmann told FN in an interview. “But then [it will also] broaden the appeal to our other target consumer groups such as the fashion-forward expressionists, the active athlete, even the deal finder.”
The rollout comes as several other shoe brands and retailers put more effort into loyalty programs. Under Armour recently launched its UA Rewards program, which surpassed 1 million members in its first few months. And Kith made waves at the start of 2024 when it launched Kith Loyalty, a new program that rewards loyal consumers with early access to exclusive products, events and more via the Kith App.
For Foot Locker, the broader launch of FLX Rewards follows a successful 2023 test run in Canada, which translated into larger basket transactions, more frequent shoppers, higher engagement, increased sign-ups and more first-time customer engagement.
The new program carries over some benefits from the prior program, such as free shipping, but adds new components. For example, top tier members of the program might have the chance to win a trip to All Star Weekend or a new sneaker closet. But less frequent shoppers will still be able to score deals on shoes.
“The insight was that while we were [previously] engaging a core set of sneaker maven consumers who like getting launch product and using the benefits of the program to get access to heat, we had an opportunity to democratize the program,” Waldmann said.
According to Waldmann, Foot Locker is working directly with its biggest brands to bring unique and exclusive product for members.