The Background:
Digital new member acquisition through REI.com is significantly lower than our retail stores. What more can REI.com do via the digital experience to appeal to potential members + convince them to join?
REI has long been celebrated for its exceptional in-store retail experience, where one of the key drivers of customer engagement and retention is its co-op membership program. Paid memberships are a well-established strategy in retail, offering brands a reliable revenue stream, increasing customer loyalty, and boosting lifetime value—particularly when shoppers perceive tangible benefits.
However, while REI’s brick-and-mortar stores successfully converted customers into members, digital acquisition lagged by approximately 30%, highlighting a critical gap in the online experience. Unlike in-store interactions—where knowledgeable staff could directly communicate the benefits of membership—our digital channels struggled to deliver the same persuasive value proposition with clarity and immediacy.
With customers becoming more discerning and value-conscious, we needed to rethink our approach to digital membership sales. The challenge was clear:
· How might we close the gap between in-store and digital membership conversion?
· How can we succinctly and compellingly convey the benefits of membership online, ensuring customers immediately recognize its value?
THE OBJECTIVE:
The primary objective of this work is to increase digital membership acquisition by closing the conversion gap between REI’s in-store and online experiences. Specifically, the goal is to improve the clarity, visibility, and perceived value of the membership offering in digital channels, ensuring customers can quickly recognize the benefits and make an informed decision to join.
THE CHALLENGE:
To drive digital membership conversion, we needed to reframe the offer, optimize high-traffic but low-converting entry points, and address perceived barriers to value—ensuring visitors quickly grasped the benefits of joining.
DESIGN VARIABLES:
To improve digital membership acquisition, we focused on three key design strategies: Making the Value Clear, Amplifying Visibility, and Creating a Cohesive Identity. We integrated real-time financial calculations to show customers the cost of not joining, used bold and assertive messaging through banners and journey interrupters to reinforce transactional benefits, and established a distinct membership color and badging system to create instant recognition and reinforce the program’s value across the shopping experience.
