🧠 CHAPTER 9: The Modern Buyer Brain: LOYALTY AS IDENTITY - 2030 & BEYOND

0:00OmniSend just shipped something that I've always wanted. You can now connect OmniSend to ChatGPT or Claude and just say, where can my email and SMS campaigns be making more money? And it actually figures it out. It reads your store data, all your campaign details, your store history, and it tells you and the insights are legit good. And even better, you can then say, okay, let's fix that or build that campaign. And it actually does it right from your chat. It's wild. Now, if you're one of our listeners, you can get 30 % off for three months on OmniSend. Just go to the show notes. There's a link there.

0:31Or you can just use the code J30, J-A-Y-3-0 when you sign up. Now, if you're using another email and SMS platform and you want to switch to OmniSend, which is a great idea, they will do the migration for you. Just give them five days and then you show up with everything set, ready to go. Now, they've migrated thousands of stores from Klaviyo. And on average, they're saving 35 % on their email and SMS bills. If you're listening to this show, you clearly care about your Shopify business. If your store isn't backed up and protected, it could all be for nothing. That's why I tell every store owner I know who cares about their business, you 100 % need Rewind installed.

1:07It's a non-negotiable for me. One bad CSV import, one app that edits your store the wrong way, which has happened to basically everyone I know. One bulk edit gone wrong, and now AI making changes for you. Listen, Shopify does not have an undo button. Rewind is the undo button. Go to shopify1percent.com slash rewind for 30 days free on us. Links in the show notes too. Okay, friends, this is it. The final chapter. Now, I know I actually said 10 chapters. I'm wrapping this up in nine because I want to actually combine a few concepts that I had in both chapters. and in one epic grand finale chapter that takes everything that we talked about in the last eight episodes of this series, combines it all, adds some, and really gives you something to take away.

2:03So if you only listen to one chapter, this is definitely going to be the one to listen to, but each of the other chapters goes deeper into the concept. So this is it. This is the last chapter. I'm calling it 2030 and Beyond. Loyalty as Identity. So let's zoom out for a second, not to next quarter, not to next year, but let's zoom out to the future we're all kind of sprinting towards, 2030 and beyond. If you look closely, you can already feel the shift happening. I certainly feel it. You probably do too. We're watching an entire era of commerce die, literally, in so many ways. through agentic commerce, through the way customers shop, through how they buy, through live shopping, like the way people bought just five years ago is dying.

2:52I'm talking about one very specific area here, but it's dying in a lot of areas. And if you look closely, you'll feel it too. A new era is emerging right in front of us. As it relates to loyalty, the old loyalty points, punch cards, discounts, those transactional rewards, that world is fading fast. And it just, it can't survive the psychology of modern buyers in the next five years. Because customers today are not looking for points. I can tell you that for sure. They are not looking for points. They are looking for meaning. They are not looking for discounts. They're looking for identity. They're not looking for loyalty programs.

3:33They're looking for brands that reflect who they are or who they want to become. This is the future. And by 2030, loyalty won't mean points. I hope it doesn't. I hope the word loyalty and points finally is not associated with each other. Loyalty will mean identity. What actual loyalty is just like taking a second, like imagine the people you were loyalty, loyal to in your life. If you were loyal to them because every time you did something, they did something back. I mean, that's what you actually call a toxic relationship. I think it's safe to say that a lot of brands have toxic relationships with their customers.

4:12You do this, I do that. If you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. It's not how people treat each other. And so I hope by 2030, loyalty does not mean points. I know it won't mean points. Loyalty will mean identity. And that's the transformation that we're seeing. I think it's a revolution, to be honest, within commerce. And it's also the opportunity. And the brands that understand this, the ones who are building for identity today, not transactions, are going to be the ones that dominate the next decade. So make sure that's you. So I want to talk about the new reality of loyalty in 2020, the winning brands, they're not just selling products.

4:50They're selling belonging. They're selling status and they're selling purpose. All of this that we talked about in the last eight chapters, how you do this, make sure you go back and listen to those. How do you sell belonging? How do you sell status? How do you sell purpose? Cause we went deep in all of these. It will be powered by AI. It will be powered by community and it will be powered by ecosystems that are wrapped around membership and identity. That's what it's going to look like in the next five years. That's what the brands, the new reality of loyalty will look like. And this, this is where everything that we've talked about comes together.

5:27The buyer brain is overloaded. We've talked about this, but membership offers simplicity. The buyer craves ease subscriptions, remove decisions. The buyer seeks recognition. Tears, badges, and insider perks create status. And the buyer is value-driven. Ecosystems allow brands to align with meaning. And the buyer wants belonging. And community gives them a place to land, to be. So the future of retail is not more features, more points, more discounts. It's more identity. A brand won't win because it's cheaper or faster. It will win because customers say, that brand feels like me. or this is just where I belong or this reflects who I want to be.

6:09And we're seeing this already. I mean, the people who wear certain clothes, people who use certain cookware, the people who drive certain cars, it's because it feels like you. It's because it's where you belong. It's your people. That's loyalty. It's not a math formula. It's a psychological bond. So I want to talk about the rise of membership ecosystems because we're moving from a world of transactional commerce to a world of ecosystems really. And in these ecosystems, the product is only one layer of value. Right now, your customer, all they might be getting from you is the product. And that won't work in the new era.

6:51The membership becomes the operating system of your ecosystem. The membership is the OS, how it runs. AI becomes the personalization engine. how you personalize the experience for every single customer. Your community becomes the glue. Recognition becomes the emotional trigger for your customers. And purpose is the underlying deeper narrative. Now think about Amazon Prime, Sephora, Beauty Insider, Restoration Hardware Membership, Peloton, Starbucks Rewards. These aren't loyalty programs. They're identity platforms. They give customers a reason to stay, not because it's convenient, but because it feels like who they are.

7:36And by 2030, every winning brand will behave this way, not as a side initiative, as their core business model. Membership will be the new retail infrastructure. Identity will be the new way, sorry, will be the new loyalty currency. And if customers are only going to join a handful of memberships, you better make sure yours is one of them. because now's the time to get them in because switching cost is switching friction is hard. So here's kind of an action plan for 2026 this next year, how to build the future of your brand now. Now this next part is critical. If you might want to listen to this part twice, maybe take out a pen, but this is your action plan.

8:20This is how you turn everything we've talked about into action. This is how you start building a brand that will, will matter in 2030 and won't be extinct. So I'm going to give you what I think is the exact roadmap and I know it will work. Execution is 99 % of success. The idea is 1%. So, you know, how you execute this is really what's going to matter. So here's your action plan. Step one, audit your onboarding. This cannot be overlooked. If the post checkout dopamine spike is wasted, you, your relationship is already weakened. So this is where it begins. Your first 24 hours should reinforce the purchase, educate them on the product, excite them, connect them, preview the membership experience.

9:07This is where loyalty begins. It begins the second they hit buy now and 30 minutes later and 60 minutes later and two hours later and go back and listen to, I think it's chapter three that we talked about this deep, but audit your onboarding. It needs to maximize the dopamine hit that customers get when they click complete purchase. Number two, layer value beyond your product. I want everyone listening to this at the end of 26. When I say, what do your customers get besides just your product, you have a list of other things they get. If I say, what do your customers get besides your product? Well, I don't know, I guess a discount or maybe a subscriber save discount or hassle free returns.

9:56I don't know. Like that won't work. That won't cut it. So add two to three new benefits this year that extend value beyond what the physical item is they're buying. Okay. And there's a long list of what this can be. We talked about this in one of the other earlier chapters as well, too. It could be early access when you drop products. It could be member pricing. And the easiest way to do member pricing, I'm going to plug it, but our custom pricing app, you can do this in two clicks. You can say, when someone spends X amounts, make them a gold member. When they spend this much, make them a platinum member.

10:28And they get different pricing and they just log in and they see their pricing, no coupon needed. Partner perk, this doesn't cost you anything. It's and partners will actually love to be a part of this, that they can give offers to your customers. Community events, online events, virtual events where you meet with your customers, coaching, education. Maybe they get some materials, courses, education, digital content, surprise gifts. Like the list goes on, but this is how you create that perceived value. That's three times greater than what they pay. and we talked we went deep on this in one of the other chapters but perceived value is what a customer perceives now i always say netflix maybe has a billion dollars of value i don't know it's a lot but if you added up like the millions of movies and shows and if i don't know what's a movie 20 bucks and if you added a cost like if you were to buy every single movie and show series on Netflix, it's going to be millions for sure, hundreds of millions.

11:30But yet some people don't want to pay$15 a month for a membership or for Netflix, which makes no sense, right? If you don't watch Netflix for two months, you don't perceive that value. So it's not the real value of your product. It's the perceived value of your product. It's like wine. You take two bottles of wine, but if one person is educated about one, where it's made and how the grapes are treated and what they do at the winery and someone comes out and tells you about it, you perceive more value. It's just a fact. Layer in two to three benefits other than the physical products of value. That's number two.

12:07Number three, rebalance your marketing budget. This is your goal for the next year. Stop spending everything on acquisition and shift some budget towards member marketing. We talked about this in one of the earlier chapters as well too. We went really deep on this, what, what member marketing is. Some of that budget should include community engagement, things that engineer habit, a strong referral design program, not just a give someone a link to get 10 % off, but something that is extremely valuable. Go back and listen to this episode because we went deep on this and, but shift, I would say my goal would be 10 % of your budget towards member marketing.

12:47Probably right now, I'm guessing you spend zero. You probably, if you looked at all of the time and money and resources spent, I'm guessing 90 % of it is spent on acquisition and probably 10 % is spent on retention, like saving customers and cancellation, stop management and flows and stuff, which is all good. But I'm guessing you spend almost nothing on improving the membership experience, the member marketing. So see if you can budget 10 % of your time, money and resources towards member marketing. Acquisition gets you customers, but member marketing is what's going to turn them into advocates that truly grow your business.

13:27Okay, number four, engineer exclusivity. So you have to engineer this. It doesn't just happen. But the reason why is scarcity creates desire and prestige creates identity. You have to engineer it. You have to think about points. So you could implement limited invites. When a new product is launched, people get invited to purchase. membership caps, different tiers, VIP tiers, private events, exclusive access. The more special it feels, the stickier the membership becomes. So your goal for 26 is engineer some exclusivity in your buyer journey. Number five, bake in surprise and delight. And we went really deep on this in one episode.

14:13I talked to you about what Chewy does. Make sure you go back and listen to that one. You have to bake this in. You have to bake in these, these moments. Loyalty is built through moments, not math. Like it's there can, and often it actually is when, when someone makes a mistake and they make it right, the true loyalty is built. Not because you go to a store, everything just goes normal. You get your points. That's not true loyalty. But when you go to a store, someone, something goes wrong and someone works to make it right. So you have to build in systems that make those moments actually happen.

14:47And we talked a lot about that in one of the chapters. So go back, listen to that. But bacon, surprise and delight because loyalty is built through moments and human touches will outperform discounts every single time. So things you can do, you can add unexpected upgrades, unexpected gifts, handwritten notes, surprise samples, birthday gifts, founder videos, like these little micro moments, they create macro loyalty. Really? They're small moments that create huge loyalty. Number six, measure smarter this year. CAC and ROAS are, I would say, old school KPIs. They matter, but they're really not what the future is.

15:27The future is really net dollar retention, which is make sure you listen to the full interview that we're pulling these chapters from. But net dollar retention is, are your customers becoming more valuable over time? So if you acquire a customer who's worth a hundred dollars, does that customer become worth$150 or$200? That's the net dollar retention at a conference. And I asked the whole audience and there's maybe a couple hundred people there. If they knew what their NDR and their net dollar retention rate was and not a single person knew it, but it's arguably the most important metric. So measure that measure your reorder rate.

16:03I get on calls all the time because this is a big part of what we do at Bold. And I asked them like, what's your reorder rate? And they're like, oh, I don't know. How do I find that out actually? And I show them how to go into the analytics and find it, but measure it and grow it. It doesn't matter what it is, but maybe it's 1.7. Maybe your average customer reorders right now 1.7 times. Well, let's grow that to 2.1. At least first of all, know what it is and then grow it. Your referral rate. Right now, listening to me, do you know what your referral rate is? How many customers each of your customers refer?

16:36Is it 0.1 on average? meaning every 10 customers refers one new one? Is it one? Does every customer refer at least one on average? Is it two? Is it 0.2? It's probably like 0.2 or 0.3, I'm guessing. But 99 % of brands have no clue. If I ask them, what's your referral rate? No clue. That's a number you should know off the top of your head. You should have a goal. And every month you should be doing something to drive that higher, whether that's through extremely valuable referral programs, building these members, membership and identity. is going to make people refer your brand more. Like everything that we're talking about is going to make customers refer your products and your brand more if they feel more connected to you.

17:16But measure it, know what it is, measure it and grow it. You want to measure engagement depth. So how much are people using of your brand? Like how much content are they engaging with? How many times are they coming back to your store? How many times are they logging in? Measure how deep customers are going with you. Not just CAC and ROAS. it's good, but we want to measure how deep customers are going. And this is why all these things are related to that net dollar retention. How are they growing in value over time? Reorder rate? Are they reordering more often? Referral rate? Are they referring more people?

17:50Engagement depth? Are they engaging in more of what you offer? And then the last thing is membership expansion. Like, are they taking advantage of more of the benefits and membership experiences that you offer. Those five things right there, measure those this year. Yes, measure CAC and ROAS, but measure those things to really, like if those needles go up, the identity and value of the connection of your customers with you is going up guaranteed. Just because CAC goes down and maybe ROAS go up, that doesn't mean you're building a healthier business. You might just be finding cheaper customers that churn faster, but you measure these five things and it will be going up.

18:31Number seven, whiteboard your membership ecosystem. Now, this is a big one. Sit down with you, your team, and ask the question almost no brand asks. Here's the question. What does belonging look like in our brand? What does it mean? Like right now, think about that. Your website, your brand, your company. What does belonging look like? What does it mean? If you ask one of your customers, what does it mean to belong to my brand? Do you know, it's not it's not product. It's not price, not shipping, not what you sell. Belonging. What does it mean? And if you have a clear answer, that's awesome. But I'm willing to guess you probably don't have an answer that just comes off the top of your head.

19:16Well, belonging means this. Belonging means they're part of our membership program. Belonging means they're working their way up their badge program. Belonging means they're in our VIP pricing program. Belonging means they're taking advantage of our membership tiers. Belonging means they're aligned with our charity. Belonging means they come to our community events. Belonging means they're part of our ecosystem and they join our live events. Like, what does it mean? Now, who is the hero in your ecosystem? What is the journey? What journey do they go on to get that belonging? What is the identity you want them to feel?

19:51What do members unlock? what's the status ladder that they climb and what is the purpose they align with? Like this is where you design the next five years of your brand. And it all hinges around what does belonging look like in your brand? So that's number seven. And I just want to talk a little bit about kind of the path forward here is, you know, we're entering an era. So like just to, you know, those seven things, that's your goal for 2026. And I want to talk about the path forward, you know, not just your goal for 2026, your goal to be relevant with the future of the modern customer, the modern buyer, buyer brain.

20:29But we're entering into an era where the brands that win won't be the ones with the best funnel. They won't be the ones with the lowest CAC. They won't be the ones with the flashiest ads or the most features on the products. They will be the ones that win. Sorry, the ones that win will be the ones that understand people, period. They'll understand psychology, they'll understand belonging, they'll understand status, and they'll understand identity. Because the future of retail isn't about selling products. I promise you that. It's about building ecosystems people never want to leave. And that's why membership matters.

21:02It's why subscriptions matter. It's why identity matters. Let me end with the line here from the interview. It's the line that really sets the stage for everything coming next. It's every brand needs to think about membership now, today. Build your ecosystem today because in a few years, your customers will only sign up for one. So make sure it's yours. Customers more and more are signing up for memberships because they want that better experience. They want that connection. Make sure it's yours. And that's the call to action for every Shopify store owner, every D2C operator, everyone listening, every brand builder who wants to thrive, not just survive in the next decade.

21:45Loyalty as an identity is the future and membership is the path. And now is the moment to build them. Now is the time because three years will be too late. So go back, listen to these, all these chapters, follow my challenges in each chapter. And this is the path. This is the bold path forward. Let's go build it, friends. You