How to Turn Customers Into Community #604

Everyone says they’re building a community. But very few brands actually are.

In this Add To Cart Playbook, we break down what it really takes to turn customers into a community that drives loyalty, repeat purchases and word of mouth.

Featuring insights from Tara McKeon (Proud Poppy), Briony Kennedy (Adorn Cosmetics), Anastasia Lloyd-Wallis (Retail Doctor Group) and Laura Thompson & Sarah Sheridan (Clothing The Gaps), this episode explores why the brands winning today aren’t just building audiences: they’re building belonging.

In Today's Playbook:

• How Tara McKeon built a 22,000-member community around Proud Poppy that drives repeat purchases
• Why the strongest ecommerce brands focus on community before conversion
• How letting customers lead the conversation can create deeper loyalty than any campaign
• Why status and belonging can outperform discounts in loyalty programs
• How brands like Clothing The Gaps turn customers into participants in a community-driven mission

Connect with Tara
Explore Proud Poppy
Tara's main episode
Adorn Cosmetic's main episode
Clothing the Gaps' main episode

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:01

Did you know that retailers who are offering fast delivery outperform their competitors by 4% during Black Friday? And that's not just a stat, that's a signal for where growth is going to come from. Shippett's Commerce Delivery Report breaks down Y speed equals success, as well as the other forces shaping delivery in 2026. From automation and AI to fulfillment and inventory, this report offers a really practical roadmap for the next phase of retail growth. If you want all the stats and the directions for what is coming in fulfillment, make sure you download this report at shipit.com forward slash CDR2026. That's shipit.com forward slash CDR2026. Everyone says that they're building a community. It's a pretty easy claim to make. But the truth is, most people aren't actually creating a community. They're creating what they want for marketing. What most brands actually have is an audience. People who follow occasionally open an email, maybe buy again if the timing is right, but it's not a true community. That's a mailing list with good open rates, it's a newsletter, it's a social media following. Community is something else entirely. It's when your customers feel like the brand belongs to them as much as it belongs to you. They advocate without being asked. When they buy, they're not doing it because it's a discount. They're buying because that's how they participate. And when you see it happen in real life, it can actually get really emotional. Tara McKeon is the founder of inclusive fashion brand Proud Poppy. She once shared a story about a husband tearing up when meeting her because of what the brand had meant to his wife. That's not a customer relationship. That's belonging. And from a commercial perspective, it really matters because when community works, the customers do the marketing for you without even knowing it. Today we are drawing lessons from a few brands that have figured this out. Tara McKeon from Proud Poppy, as we mentioned, Bryony Kennedy from Adorn Cosmetics, Laura Thompson and Sarah Sheridan from Clothing the Gaps, and Anastasia Lloyd Wallace from Retail Doctor Group. But first, let's hear from Tara on what it actually means when a customer or a community member actually chooses to spend money with you. What does it mean?

SPEAKER_00 2:32

I'm super grateful for every dollar that they spend, they choose to spend with Proud Poppy. So I would never trick them into spending with us. I wanted them to think about if they wanted to spend with us. I didn't want them to put any pressure on shopping with us. But just, you know, again, engaging in the content, sharing the content, that sort of stuff. Like it gets it out there. It helps us spend less on meta and you know, there's all those sorts of things. But never putting pressure or making people feel guilty that they couldn't shop with us, but just if they could, if they wanted to have a look and shop, like their purchase was beyond more, but it was going to have more of an effect on our business than just buying new cars or whatever. Like it was actually make or break for our business. So, you know, just getting personal.

SPEAKER_01 3:20

Is that because your community feels like Proud Poppy's part of them too? So as much as they don't want to see you suffer or Proud Poppy not go ahead, it's like actually like that's part of my identity as well.

SPEAKER_00 3:30

Yeah, totally, totally. Like we have changed lives. I know we've changed lives. I've had husbands burst into tears when they've met me and just hug me and say thank you for what I've done for their wife. And I've had someone message me before saying, you know, I know you're not an emergency nurse anymore, but I want to let you know that you've saved my life. So, and it it's not just about the close. It's about that community connection, confidence, and just living your life and not giving a shit about what people think about you anymore. Like there was a time in my life where I wouldn't go to Woolworths because I was so nervous about bumping into somebody who might know me because of the way that I looked and how I felt, and I was just so just didn't want to go to Woolies. Now I will get down in my undies on a live and I couldn't give a shit. Like, you know, like because life's too short to spend it worrying about people you don't even know, like what they think about you.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Yeah, I love it. I love it. So when it comes to community, what are the more formal ways? Obviously, you've got your Instagram where you are your own, let's call it a personality to get out there and your own profile. But how do you formalize that as a business? So on you've got a private Facebook group, is that right?

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Yeah, yep. Proud Puppy VIP community. Beautiful. There's over 22,000 members in there, I think, at the minute, which is awesome.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

Okay. And then you've got your loyalty program as well.

SPEAKER_00 4:53

Yes, loyalty that's about to have a bit of a revamp, which is super exciting.

SPEAKER_01 4:57

Okay. And then with such a strong community and such a strong following, how do you divide your marketing efforts between retaining or engaging existing customers and fans versus going out to try and find new Proud Poppy customers?

SPEAKER_00 5:12

I think it's always important to try and find new customers to keep tipping them into that funnel and growing the business. Cause as you bring someone in, someone might drop off, you know. But to be honest, like once someone finds Proud Poppy, they've they've got us. We've got them and they've got us, you know. It's literally like it's a friendship, it's a relationship. We have more return customers than what we do single purchases, which is really exciting.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

And something I'm really proud of too. So yeah, once they shop with us, they can they generally repeat pretty quickly. Yeah, yeah. They know our products, they understand the quality, we give a really high level of customer service. So we don't really have to spend much on retaining customers. What we spend is that organic, authentic connection and relationship building, which just happens naturally.

SPEAKER_01 6:03

How amazing is Tara. There are a few lessons that came out of just that one passage alone. But the lesson that I really want to share here is that you need to build a place where customers want to show up. Tara didn't just build a clothing brand. She built a place where customers gather and they feel like they're part of a collective. Proud Poppy's VIP Facebook group has more than 22,000 members and it behaves less like a marketing channel because it was never designed as a marketing channel, and more like a community lounge or get together. Customers show up daily, sharing outfits, celebrating wins, supporting each other through tough days. And Tara doesn't force the sale in any way. She's actually really protective of it, and she's very open that people shouldn't feel pressured to buy. The brand focuses on creating connection first and the purchases, you've got to trust that they follow naturally. And that's the big difference between an audience and a community. An audience listens, a community participates. And when customers feel like they belong somewhere, first and foremost, they come back, not just because of a campaign or a discount, but because that's where they want to be. Following on from that is Bryoni Kennedy. She's the founder of Adorn Cosmetics, a trusted online beauty store for premium makeup and skincare. And similar to Tara, she's built a private Facebook group exclusively for customers that at the time of recording had around 5,000 members. But the key moment came when she stopped trying to control it, stopped trying to massage it. And customers started sharing their own makeup tips, then life updates, and then the real stuff when they were struggling, when something amazing was happening, when they just needed someone to listen. The makeup became the excuse for the gathering, but not the central point of it. Instead of treating the VIP groups like a broadcast channel, Bryoni stepped back and let the community take ownership. And when customers started forming relationships with each other inside the brand space, the loyalty becomes much deeper. That's what brings a community together. And that leads us into relationships and status, beating savings anytime. Anastasia Lloyd Wallace from Retail Doctor shared a fascinating case study from Chat Time. You might know them as the bubble tea kiosks. Customers were collecting loyalty points, but not redeeming them. And it wasn't because they forgot, it's because they didn't want to. Having the most points meant being the most loyal Chat Time fan. It was actually something to show off. The points had stopped being currency, they'd become status. I'm sure we know a few people who use Qantas points like this. And while this was especially true for the younger demographics in the chat time example, the insight holds across retail. People want to signal who they are and the brands that they love become part of their identity. So if your loyalty program is purely built around discounts, you're optimizing for the wrong thing. You're optimizing for immediate transactions. But if you want to build recognition into it, think tiers, rankings, visibility, exclusive access, things that show that you are one of the most loyal fans ever, you need to start optimizing for belonging. And belonging in the long term is a far stronger driver than savings. And then we can take it to the next level again. What if you had your community as core to your mission in business? Laura Thompson and Sarah Sheridan are the founders of Clothing the Gaps, an Aboriginal-led, majority Aboriginal-owned community brand. And they've brought an important principle with them. Real change happens through peer-to-peer support, not top-down messaging. So Clothing the Gaps doesn't talk about customers, they talk about supporters. Every purchase is framed as participation in a much bigger journey towards visibility, education, and change. That framing shifts the meaning of the transaction. It's no longer just a purchase, it's an act of participation into a bigger mission. And when customers see themselves as participants instead of buyers, they behave very differently. They advocate, they forgive, they give back, and they bring others with them. There's a common thread running through all of these stories. Tara showed us what happens when a brand creates a space that customers genuinely want to show up to. Bryoni proved that when you stop controlling the conversation, your customers can build something much more powerful than any campaign you could have dreamed up. Anastasia reminded us that loyalty isn't about discounts. Sometimes the real reward is status and recognition. And Laura and Sarah reframed what a purchase means when customers feel like they're participating in a bigger mission. The brands that build real community don't treat it like a marketing tactic. They don't even start there. They treat it like belonging. And once customers start to feel like your brand is part of who they are, retention stops being something you engineer and it becomes something your customers protect with you.