60 million members, contributing 96% of revenue, 4,000 words to explain Kidswant membership model

How to operate membership well? How to operate paid membership? The author of this article disassembles the Kidswant membership model as an example to organize and share relevant content. It is highly recommended for students in operation positions to read!

We all know that membership is important, but how can we manage membership well? How to become a paid member? Are there any cases to learn from?

I think Kidswant should have absolute say in this regard. Its membership strategy and approach are not only a benchmark for the maternal and infant industry, but also worthy of reference and learning for brands across the industry.

Over the past decade, Kidswant has achieved tremendous growth in both the capital market and the consumer market under its unique membership model. With an average store opening rate of one every 10 days, its revenue has grown rapidly. In just 10 years, Kidswant has become a veritable unicorn.

As of June 2023, Kidswant has more than 60 million members, and the income contributed by members accounts for more than 96% of Kidswant's total sales revenue of maternal and infant products. Among them, there are more than one million black gold members (paid members), and the output value of each customer is 13 times that of ordinary members.

Of course, membership is only a part of Kidswant’s success today. Its private domain operations, digital system and large store model are also important factors in Kidswant’s continued development.

Today's article will focus on dismantling the membership model of Kidswant. How does its dual-track model of "growing membership + paid membership" work? What is the strategy for membership operation?

1. Growth-oriented membership system

There is no threshold for joining Kidswant's growth membership. As long as users register on the Kidswant platform with their mobile phone number, they can automatically become members. According to the changes in the growth value, they will be upgraded to different levels of membership and enjoy different rights and interests.

Kidswant's "growth value" is divided into "consumption points" and "behavior points". Consumption points are consumption points. As long as you place an order through Kidswant's online or offline channels, growth points will be issued according to the consumption amount after the transaction is successful. Behavior points mean that in addition to consumption, you can also obtain growth points through offline store clocking in, online app sign-in, evaluation, order sharing, account information completion and other behaviors.

Currently, Kidswant's growth membership is divided into 8 levels: L1-L8. The growth value requirements for each level are as follows:

The current benefits include: 5 yuan coupons, 20 yuan coupons, and 50 yuan coupons.

It can also be seen from the above that the main division of membership rights is above L5 level. According to statistics, Kidswant L5-L8 level members account for about 20% and 80% of the transaction volume. This is also in line with the "80/20 rule", that is, 80% of the company's performance comes from 20% of super users.

Therefore, serving these 20% super users well will achieve twice the result with half the effort for the overall operation of members, thus maximizing efficiency.

There is also a points system. Currently, users can earn points through consumption (1 point for every 1 yuan paid). Points can be used to purchase cash (100:1 redemption ratio), redeem gifts/coupons in the points mall, redeem gifts in stores, and participate in point draws.

2. Paid Membership System

Kidswant’s paid members are collectively called Black Gold PLUS members, and the current number of members has exceeded one million.

Kidswant has four types of cards for different user groups: Growth Card, Pregnancy Card, Light Enjoyment Card and Wyeth Co-branded Card. The benefits of these cards are the same, the difference lies in the amount of benefits.

It should be noted that Kidswant's paid membership and the above-mentioned growth membership are two parallel systems and do not include each other. Therefore, even if you have opened a paid membership, you still need to accumulate growth points through consumption to obtain other corresponding levels of membership rights.

Next, let’s take a closer look at the benefits of paying members:

1) Cashback: 2% cashback throughout the year, 5% cashback every Wednesday. The annual cashback limit is 1,000 yuan

2) Exclusive gifts: Black Gold exclusive price, Black Gold exclusive activities/benefits, etc.

3) Exclusive gift: exclusive customer service

4) Parenting Gifts: 3 considerate parenting services. Professional parenting consultant; local life services; online exclusive customer service

5) Points gift: 100 points = 1 yuan, up to 50% discount, starting from 100 points

6) City Gift: Services/products provided by third-party merchants (displayed according to location)

7) After-sales gift: 30-day return; no reason for global purchase

8) Card opening gift: 50 yuan full-site coupon or 100 yuan brand package coupon (choose 1 of 2)

9) Birthday gift: 50 yuan discount coupon for direct sales products (use for purchases over 200 yuan, given on birthdays)

10) Children's Fun Gift: 3 visits to the Children's Park; 12 visits to the Growth Experiment Station; 3 20-yuan store interaction coupons; 2 in-store haircuts. (Choose 1 from 4)

11) Newborn gift: 50-yuan coupon for direct sales products (useable for purchases over 200 yuan, issued 30 days before the expected date of delivery)

12) Brand gift: coupons for discounts on Wyeth brand products

From summary and analysis, it can be concluded that the two types of paid memberships of Kidsland are targeted at two different groups of people.

The 99-yuan card is aimed at expectant mothers, mainly based on service needs, and has two prominent features:

1. Pay attention to after-sales service. Because pregnant women at this stage need to constantly buy products from different brands to understand which one is more suitable for them, the probability of returns and exchanges is relatively high.
2. Focus on childcare services. Pregnant mothers do not purchase maternal and infant products very frequently, but due to their lack of experience, they attach great importance to childcare-related consulting services.

The 199 yuan version is aimed at infants and young children. On the basis of the 99 yuan version, it adds three benefits, mainly based on consumer demand, and highlights two characteristics:

1. Buy more, save more and encourage more consumption. Growth cards give a lot of consumption coupons, hoping that the more users buy and consume, the more they save, ensuring a certain consumption frequency and achieving the purpose of binding users.
2. Create consumption scenarios. Because consumers of maternal and infant brands attach great importance to the services of offline stores, the Growth Card provides multiple free visits to children's playgrounds, haircuts and other services, which deeply binds this group of people and creates an excellent scenario for their consumption in stores.

Kidswant's two paid membership methods also give many businesses some inspiration. When building a paid membership system, avoid homogeneity. Clarifying user portraits, labels and other features can more accurately distinguish user needs, make appropriate differentiation, and increase user card opening rates.

3. 4 Steps to Dismantle Kidswant Membership Operation System

Currently, Kidswant has 60 million members and more than 1 million paying members. This was not achieved overnight, nor can it be achieved simply by setting up some benefits.

How do they make you a member step by step? Then a paying member? Or even let you actively recommend members? There is a strict membership operation system behind it. I divide Kidswant's membership operation system into 4 steps: member acquisition - member stratification - member interaction - member fission. Let's take a closer look:

1. Membership Acquisition

Before each new Kids King store opens, shopping guides will be in place in advance, with the goal of expanding membership. According to statistics, Kids King stores generally need to accumulate members in advance before opening, with Class A stores having at least 15,000 members and other stores having at least 10,000 members. After the store opens, the number of members recruited is also included in the KPI in daily operations.

If a new customer comes to the store, the shopping guide will provide full-time shopping accompaniment. During the period, in addition to providing parenting knowledge and product recommendations, the customer will be guided to download the Kids King APP, add the shopping guide's corporate WeChat, and use new customer benefits such as one-yuan purchases as sales hooks to complete the first purchase at the same time as joining the store, all in one go.

In Kidswant’s main online channels, such as official accounts, apps, mini-programs, etc., membership-related rights and content will be placed in prominent positions to induce users to register as members with benefits, and then provide the services that users want.

2. Membership stratification

The key to membership stratification is to collect, process and analyze user information, provide different services for members at different levels, and maximize operational efficiency.

For a company of the size of Kidsland, it is obviously unrealistic to rely on individual employees to manage its membership, so Kidsland started its digital transformation 10 years ago.

Kidswant currently uses a membership management tool that allows each employee to manage up to 350 members, with an average labor productivity of 1.2 million yuan. It is like an employee's digital brain, which not only allows users to view user data including recent transactions and historical behaviors, but also comes with built-in functions such as a common problem script library and a coupon distribution system.

The system will also make dynamic suggestions based on big data analysis. For example, customer A will be lost if he is not maintained, customer B’s milk powder is almost gone, and customer C needs special care. The system will tell you directly where to focus your attention and maximize labor efficiency.

In addition, in the private domain that Kidswant is proud of, the user stratification concept is also worth learning for many businesses. Kidswant adds a very interesting action when inviting users to join the group, and gives users three groups at the same time: special price flash sale group, worry-free parenting group, and pregnant mother family.

Users can join different groups according to their actual situation and needs, and Kidswant’s community operators can also set more precise operational actions based on the different attributes of the groups to improve operational efficiency.

3. Member Interaction

After attracting new members and stratifying them, the next step is to promote and retain members, which is also the key to the sustainable development of the company. Kidswant has maximized the interaction with members and maximized its advantages. Here I divide it into three parts: online private domain, offline stores, and parenting consultants.

1) The main function of online private domain is to promote activation

Kidswant has made detailed plans for content distribution in the private domain:

Circle of Friends: Create a real IP image and output valuable content in the circle of friends. You can also interact with users and reach them deeply.

Good product recommendations: In the Kids King community, there are always recommendations for various good products, and they appear in the form of flash sales or group purchase discounts, which not only increases the paid conversion rate, but also enhances the brand's reputation.

Game lucky draw: The group has set up some game interaction sessions, and users have the opportunity to win designated prizes after participating. At the same time, when claiming the prize, users also need to add the personal WeChat of Kids King Assistant, which is equivalent to directing traffic to the personal WeChat again.

2) The main function of offline stores is to retain customers. Through the store as a large scene, the relationship with users is bound

Kidswant holds nearly 1,000 interactive activities in each store every year, such as baby crawling competitions, birthday parties, cooking classes, etc. Members can also experience one-stop maternal and child services within a radius of 3 kilometers at Kidswant, such as baby swimming, early childhood education, talent, English training, baby haircuts, etc. In other words, to some extent, Kidswant has turned its stores into "users' stores."

3) Parenting consultants place more emphasis on social attributes, allowing users to become “friends” with parenting consultants and have a closer relationship

According to data, as of September 2019, Kidswant has trained more than 6,000 childcare consultants, including 2,000 certified childcare teachers and 500 childcare experts, accounting for more than 80% of its store employees.

Whether it is an expectant mother, a new mother or an experienced mother, it is difficult to refuse the parenting consultants of Kidswant. In answering questions and solving problems, the consultants establish a strong trust relationship with users, and the conversion rate and retention rate are naturally high.

4. Member fission

Fission is the core growth method of Kidswant, which is mainly concentrated in online channels. There are two types of fission methods:

1) Place an order and share to receive a red envelope

This method is mainly aimed at users who place orders. After placing an order, users can share the mini program or poster to receive a cash red envelope of up to 188 yuan. Red envelopes are used as bait to stimulate users to share and attract new users to become members.

2) Free coupons

Kidswant has set up a "Pin Shen Coupon" activity page in its mini program and app, where users can get corresponding coupons by inviting friends to join a group. By sharing on the user's social circle of friends, more users are attracted to the activity page, increasing the probability of member conversion. At the same time, after a successful group join, both the user and the invited group joiner can get coupons to place an order.

Summarizing the four steps of Kids King membership operations, it is not difficult to discover that Kids King’s core concept is “managing user relationships”. Every step and every service is centered around users, rather than treating users as “traffic”. Perhaps this is the key to Kids King becoming a maternal and infant giant.

Especially this year, ChatGPT has become very popular. Kids King has also launched its own parenting model KidsGPT, which is also the first vertical model in the maternal and infant field in China.

After testing, KidsGPT is able to meet all the needs of children aged 0 to 14 and expectant mothers, comprehensively improve product intelligence and service experience in the parenting field, further strengthen the emotional connection with tens of millions of members, and become one of the core competitive advantages of Kids King.

4. Final Thoughts

As a business logic, the essence of "membership" is to establish user relationships selectively and differentiatedly. However, enterprises cannot treat users as leeks. Only when you truly serve users with your heart will users remember you in their hearts, and then there will be transactions and fission.

It can be foreseen that the dividends of various industries have peaked at present, and "paid membership" will become the second growth curve of enterprises in the future. In-depth exploration of user value is also the general trend.

Whether it is the fast-moving consumer goods brands we commonly see, or maternal and infant brands like Kidsland, they all need to establish a membership system in a way that suits them, and continuously cultivate and screen these paying users. Paid members are also an important part of corporate super users.

At present, most brands have started to operate membership systems, but have encountered bottlenecks in the process that cannot be broken through, such as:

• How to combine traditional members and super users?
• How to design benefits and services for paid members?
• How do enterprises screen super users?
• …

If you want to make membership marketing more precise and deeply tap into high-value users, you must give up treating all users equally and implement truly tiered and refined operational management, thereby establishing a super user system and achieving the company's second curve growth.

Author: Yan Tao WeChat public account: Yan Tao Sanshou