The urban legend in retailing is that membership warehouse clubs like Costco, Sam’s Club and BJ’s break even on selling goods but make all their money on annual membership dues.
Whether it’s true or not it seems that more and more retailers are rolling out paid membership programs in an effort to both keep customers loyal to their stores and make some extra money.
The latest to give it a test are Best Buy
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Of course perhaps the biggest membership program is Amazon
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All these programs are separate and apart from programs and clubs that many retailers operate that require no annual fee or dues. All of them seem to have been spurred on by the loyalty programs that the airline industry began decades ago and that have become entities onto themselves, often earning serious money for them.
Today many retailers offer membership programs with a variety of benefits, all designed to get customers to buy from them more often. Supermarkets have become big membership supporters and other well-known retailers with large programs include Starbucks
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Best Buy Beta, which is now being tested at select stores in Iowa, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania, is set to be expanded this month to stores in Minnesota, North Carolina and Tennessee for a total of 60 locations by the end of the month, according to press reports. An existing program called Total Tech Support, also at $199 per year, remains available for customers outside the test program areas.
Shoppers who have the Best Buy credit card get a $20.99 discount off the base rate and all members get free unlimited tech support through the retailer’s fabled Geek Squad service, free shipping with no minimum and assorted goodies like longer…
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