In today’s fast-changing retail landscape, diversifying revenue streams has become essential for sustainable growth and long-term salience.
From retail media and advertising to subscriptions, loyalty programmes, partnerships and experiential retail, a wide range of options exist for retailers to generate incremental revenue and strengthen their offering for customers while remaining true to their core mission.
In order to get to the nuts and bolts of how retailers are approaching this challenge, Webloyalty spoke to senior leaders from some of the UK’s most innovative businesses and compiled the findings into a report, ‘Diversifying Revenue Streams’.
Here are some stand-out insights from three of the businesses featured: delivery and ride-sharing firm Uber, floral retailer Bloom & Wild, and immersive retail space Brityard.
Uber: Building out a retail media business
Uber’s additional revenue stream is advertising and it runs across both Uber Eats and Uber Rides. Having built a range of advertising products, from sponsored listings for restaurant and grocery partners on Uber Eats to Journey Ads in the Uber rides app, there are now many options to work with partners and build a strong additional revenue stream.
As the executive who was responsible for advertising across Uber’s ecosystem, including Journey Ads and sponsored messaging within Uber Eats, Paul Wright – current Board Advisor and Strategic Consultant to a range of businesses, and former Head of EMEA at Uber Advertising – understands the significance of investing in the growth of the core business through different channels.
“I believe that extending businesses into new areas can work well when executed with the right strategic vision coupled with the right resources to support the new areas of business growth,” he told the report authors.
“With more advertisers on our platform, we can create more profit that we can reinvest into the growth of our core businesses – accelerating the flywheel effects of our advertising program.” He added that diversifying the business also serves to promote innovation internally:
“The Ads team here collaborates with many other Uber teams and can create new solutions and ideas for customers and the business.”
From directory to immersive retail destination: How Brityard is super-charging British retailers
Under the leadership of Co-Founder Lara Gibson-Chant, Brityard has evolved from a digital marketplace into a physical retail destination located on London’s Regent Street. Built on the belief that British brands and creative talent are underrepresented on the high street, Brityard partners with emerging UK brands to give them a prominent physical presence.
Brityard was initially a directory before becoming a drop-shipping ecommerce website, but has now developed into an immersive retail, hospitality and events destination. Re-imagining the use and monetisation of retail space is key to the Brityard concept and has provided a wide variety of options to expand the company’s revenue sources.
“I believe businesses should have total clarity on what they are great at, what their priorities are, whilst remaining open to exploring new opportunities that align with their overall strategy and vision ,” Gibson-Chant explains.
“Ultimately, being agile enough to adapt and evolve your business around the changing needs of your customers and clients is how you continue to stay relevant.”
Gibson-Chant adds that Brityard’s diversified revenue streams also enhance the customer experience “by offering variety in terms of both product and activities offered. From a retail perspective, the mix of brands allows you to quickly understand and gauge what types of products and brands are instinctively interesting to the customer.”
How Bloom & Wild is presenting a personalised customer experience
Over the past decade, Bloom & Wild has grown into one of Europe’s leading online flower and plant businesses, pioneering the letterbox flowers concept and expanding its reach across multiple markets.
Aron Gelbard, Co-Founder and CEO of the company, said that: “Over the years we have developed a strong platform, which our customers love and trust and so there is a natural logic to extending our ranges into adjacent areas, where we can maintain our core values, as well as remaining true to our customer proposition.”
Bloom & Wild have moved into multiple new revenue streams, expanding on a number of fronts. One of those is the inclusion of a loyalty programme, Bloom & Wild Rewards, for their most frequent customers – many of whom now shop in other gifting categories beyond flowers.
This acts as an opportunity to not only provide better offers and lower prices, but also enable Gelbard and his team to better understand the audience and be more targeted by presenting a more personalised experience.
“We have enriched our understanding of our customers by offering a wider proposition… These extra revenue streams have first and foremost helped us serve more customers and offer our customers more choice,” said Gelbard.
Letterbox flowers retailer Bloom & Wild has expanded into loyalty for its most frequent customers, many of whom shop in gifting categories beyond flowers. Image: Retail Media Age
Diversifying revenue, delivering for customers
One of the report’s overarching findings is that the definition of secondary revenue varies significantly from business to business. Some retailers have focused on loyalty and subscription models, while others are monetising audience scale through retail media or rethinking physical space as an income-generating asset.
In all cases, however, their leaders are clear that the diversified revenue streams are also aiding them in delivering for the customer – whether through promoting innovation and ideas, offering choice and greater understanding, or simply building a more resilient business.
By bringing together insights from brands such as Uber, Brityard and Bloom & Wild, alongside others including OnBuy, Elvis & Kresse, COOK, Ribble and Furniturebox, the Diversifying Revenue Streams report offers a clear snapshot of how leading UK businesses are adapting their models to strengthen profitability and build long-term sustainability.
Read insights from all eight business leaders by downloading the full report: Diversifying Revenue Streams.
