Earned Income + Membership Benefits = The Perfect Fit!
Most cultural institutions offer standard café and shop discounts as membership perks — but are those benefits working as hard as they could be to drive both member satisfaction and earned income?
💡 Key Insight: Earned Income Through Membership Benefits
Food service and retail discounts are among the most appreciated and underoptimized membership benefits a cultural institution can offer. With the right structure — tiered discounts, exclusive hours, bundled perks — these amenities can meaningfully increase membership value, retention, and per-visit revenue.
1. Everyone loves a cookie! The café can offer free cookies with purchase for members only. The café doesn’t even need to buy packaging. The cookies can be kept in their own special display case at the cash register to be given out with bakery tissue. Amp it up by adding signage that says, “Members get a Free Cookie.” This relatively low-cost effort is an easy way to make members feel special.
2. Double discount days! Most organizations offer discounts to their members, but why not turn up the volume by offering double discount days during the slower periods, like fall or spring, before 11 am or after 3 pm? This offer can be advertised alongside less popular exhibitions to encourage your members to come for a visit.
3. Refills for free! Activate your retail shop and café in one fell swoop while helping the environment! Offer your members free coffee or soda if they purchase a branded cup or mug in the store. The store display should highlight the café; this creates a nice opportunity for cross promotion. To support your institution’s sustainability initiatives, members should be encouraged to bring their vessels back on their next visit!
4. Member Loyalty! Both café and retail shops can offer loyalty programs to your members. If your software permits you to track purchases, you can offer credits after a certain amount is spent ($5 credit after $50 is spent). A low-tech loyalty card is an alternative too, with offers like discounts or free beverage after the fifth visit, for example.
5. Logo’d Merchandise! Branded merchandise is a requirement in all our clients’ retail shops. Most shops order very large quantities of basic items like T-shirts and mugs to take advantage of bulk discounts. Go ahead and offer your members deep discounts on these products. Your shop will still make a profit and move those items faster. Plus, your members will be walking billboards out in the community, proudly wearing or using their branded merchandise.
6. Holiday Gifts for All! Create a Members-Only Holiday Gift Guide. If you have an online store, this can easily be curated and shared with members-only discounts and incentives. You can also offer private shopping hours in the days and weeks leading up to the holidays, including double discount days or double discount hours on all or some specialty merchandise.
Many membership managers don’t think of the food service and retail as a place to really deepen engagement with members. Engaging in fun, novel ways can raise per caps and renewal rates. For more information on increasing revenue, contact JGL!