The Successful Launch of the Veterans Online Shopping Benefit

Years of hard work from all of you is paying off: When the Exchange welcomed home all honorably discharged Veterans to ShopMyExchange.com this past Veterans Day weekend, online sales more than doubled the amount at the same period last year, reaching nearly $14 million, 120 percent above last year.

Physical stores also performed impressively: For the entire three-day weekend, overall sales, including brick-and-mortar stores in all Exchange regions, rose 32 percent to $54.1 million.

“Wow! Huge kudos to all,” said Exchange Director/CEO Tom Shull. “Not a weak link anywhere in our worldwide enterprise. As we all know, sales are the best measure of customer satisfaction. There is no better feeling as a retailer than pleasing customers—and in our case, the best customers in the world are telling us they are pleased.”

“I am so proud of this team and so honored to be on it. In my 30-plus years in retail, I have never witnessed such a magnificent result in two of the most critical days in a retailer’s year!”

The numbers indeed were impressive:

• On Friday, when Americans observed Veterans Day, e-commerce sales were 67 percent higher than the same day last year.
• On Friday, the number of online visitors to ShopMyExchange.com—320,000—was 148 percent higher than the same day last year; orders rose 117 percent; and demand rose 67 percent.
• On Saturday, online sales reached nearly $5.1 million, 299 percent higher than the same day in 2016.
• On Saturday, the number of visitors—308,500—rose 75 percent; orders increased 382 percent; and demand was up 299 percent.
• On Sunday, the numbers still trended upward as online sales rose by 101 percent and total sales increased by 20 percent.
• New registrants to ShopMyExchange.com for the weekend were 30,734—and 65 percent were Veterans.
• The average order value was $277, which translates into $5.5 million in sales from Veteran online shopping benefit customers.

The lifetime online military exchange shopping benefit for Veterans marked the first expansion of exchange privileges since 1990.

“The Exchange is honored to open its virtual doors to millions of deserving Veterans,” said Shull, a Vietnam-era Veteran who worked after joining the Exchange in 2012 to secure the change in Department of Defense policy to extend the online benefit to all who served honorably. “This is something Veterans can enjoy the rest of their lives and reconnects Veterans to their military communities.”

Excitement for the new benefit had been building for months: more than 255,000 Veterans verified their eligibility to shop at ShopMyExchange.com before the benefit had even launched.

The performance of Veterans’ Day weekend also bodes well for Black Friday and the entire holiday season, said President/Chief Merchandising Officer Ana Middleton.

“I’ve been at the Exchange for 35 years, and I have never seen such a response as the one during the past Veterans Day weekend,” she said. “I credit the hard work of all directorates and associates throughout the Exchange for helping make the expansion of the online benefit to Veterans one of the most significant events in our 122-year history.”

“There is no doubt that our Black Friday and holiday season should also be very successful, but we must keep pressing to provide our customers, especially our new Veteran shoppers, extraordinary shopping experiences so they will continue to shop with us, either online or in our stores.”

Tireless Efforts to Get Ready, Advertising the New Benefit

In addition to offering great deals on ShopMyExchange.com, Exchange associates worked tirelessly to get word of the new benefit out to all Veterans. Several Exchange directorates worked together to spread the news through press releases; newspaper, television and radio interviews; social media posts; magazine and newspaper ads; events; and videos.

This multipronged approach shined a spotlight on the new benefit and boosted the number of Veterans who verified this past weekend.

Here are just a few examples:

Exchange Director/CEO Tom Shull spoke with Comcast Newsmakers about the Exchange mission and the Veterans online shopping benefit.

Celebrities, including actor Mark Wahlburg and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, created video shout-outs letting Veterans know about their new benefit. A compilation of these celebrity shout-outs was created and launched on Veterans Day on the Exchange Facebook page.

The expansion of the online shopping benefit to all Veterans prompted media coverage from media outlets across the country. The coverage, especially in areas with high concentrations of Veterans, was coordinated by the Exchange’s corporate communication team.

Among other media coverage:

The Denver Post

Colorado Springs Gazette

Philadelphia Inquirer

San Diego Union-Tribune

Military.com

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Tampa Bay Times

The Oklahoman (Oklahoma City, Okla.)

Military One Click

This summer, an Associated Press story about the benefit expansion was picked up by more than 600 news outlets around the country, including The New York Times, US News & World Report, CNBC and more.

The Exchange’s senior leaders and military personnel stationed at the Exchange’s Dallas headquarters got together to officially cut the ribbon on the launch of the Veterans online shopping benefit. The ribbon-cutting was videotaped and posted on the Exchange Facebook page and got nearly 30,000 views.

Associates throughout the Exchange worked tirelessly for months to do their best that everything went without a hitch on Veterans Day weekend. For instance, the IT Directorate implemented changes to the technology that drives the website so ShopMyExchange.com could handle the volume of new shoppers and be user-friendly from sign-on to payment.

The Merchandising Directorate and e-Commerce associates worked to ensure customers could easily find the hottest brand names on ShopMyExchange.com. Directorate leaders joined with their logistics counterparts to create more than 50 Ship-from-Store locations from where associates handle online fulfillment to speed deliver to customers closest to their Exchanges. Special sections were set up at the Exchange’s three distribution centers to specifically handle online orders so that customers would receive their packages when they expected them.

The Exchange Credit Program and other directorates honed the process by which Veterans could verify their military service and eligibility to shop with the Exchange online, while ensuring the Customer Call Center was fully staffed with associates trained to handle any call.

“We want to recognize these superhuman efforts of all at the Exchange for such a flagship event,” Shull said.

Read about what all exchange teams did to prepare.

Additionally, Exchanges around the world did their part in helping spread the news about the Veterans online shopping benefit. From store and sporting events to parades, Exchange associates stepped up to share this milestone.

Visit the Exchange flickr album for photos.

But Middleton cautioned that managers and associates cannot rest on their laurels and the results from the Veterans Day weekend. The retail environment is still amazingly tough and competitive, she added.

“Now thanks to your hard work, we have an excellent start, so let’s keep the momentum for the rest of the year and beyond,” Middleton said. “Please remain diligent and delight the customers with excellence in the stores, online and behind the scenes to continue our success.”