The Container Store to Launch a New Loyalty Program and Mobile App

Customers of The Container Store will see a new loyalty program and mobile app in the retailer's coming quarter.

The new tier-based loyalty program is expected to launch at the end of March, CEO and president Satish Malhotra said during the retailer’s Q3 2021 earnings call. The goals of the new program are to attract new customers and reward deeper engagement with existing customers.

“The intent of it is really not only to attract new customers with our program, but really reward those customers that are engaging with us on a day in, day out basis,” said Malhotra. “We have an ability to ensure that we can improve the active rate of our members and improve the frequency of their visits, including their spend. And I think the program that will be unveiled by the end of fiscal '21 will satisfy our objectives on that.”

The Container Store’s current loyalty program, Perfectly Organized Perks (POP!), launched in 2014 and has 10.8 million members. “Amazingly, with the program that we have today, there is quite a lot of stickiness around it, but I think we can do so much more as we start to layer on some additional benefits to that program,” noted Malhotra.

The new mobile app is expected to launch this spring and will be “another way to meet customers where they are already shopping and will allow us to introduce them to our new loyalty program,” said Malhotra.

Over the past year, The Container Store has been actively working on a mobile point-of-sale solution, which is expected to be available by the end of fiscal 2021. The mPOS solution will help the retailer dramatically improve checkout speed, Malhotra said last year, and will make its online assortment available in-store and support its new smaller store format concept. The retailer opened its first new smaller format store in Annapolis, MD, in Q1 2021.

The Container Store has also made significant strides to enhance its website browsing experience, including a holistic redesign of its product listing page and product detail page, noted Malhotra.

“For example, our multivariate product pages will show customers additional size and color options of a product,” he said. “We also recently launched Smart filtering to allow customers to filter by the dimension of a product. This improvement assists them in finding the right items for their space, saving them valuable time on site.”

For Q3 2021, ended January 1, 2022, the retailer’s online sales decreased 36% compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2020. For the year-to-date online sales decreased 38.8% compared to the thirty-nine weeks ended December 26, 2020. 

Net sales for the quarter were down 3.0% compared to the third quarter of fiscal 2020. Compared to third quarter fiscal 2019, net sales increased 16.9%.

“Our third quarter results exceeded our expectations and we achieved a third straight quarter in fiscal 2021 of at least 16% sales growth compared to fiscal 2019,” Malhotra said in a statement. “We are particularly proud of the performance we delivered within Custom Closets and our general merchandise categories, with growth of 19.5% and 15.6%, respectively, when compared to fiscal 2019. Our recent acquisition of Closet Works provides us with the opportunity to meet the growing consumer demand for custom closets, specifically for premium wood-based spaces with an expanded assortment. As we look forward, our financial results combined with the progress we are making against our strategic initiatives position us well to finish out our fiscal year strong despite continued pandemic-related headwinds.”