Editor’s note, May 2026: This article was first published in July 2023. We updated it in May 2026 to reflect current Spotlight VIP Club benefits and Spotlight Retail Group’s latest member numbers.

Spotlight is a prominent Australian company that specialises in home furnishing, décor and crafting products. Established in 1973, Spotlight has grown into a leading retailer across Australia, New Zealand and Asia. The company offers an extensive selection of goods, including fabrics, curtains, bedding, furniture, kitchenware, lighting and party supplies. It caters to everyday consumers and DIY enthusiasts.

The Spotlight VIP Club continues to come up as one of the largest loyalty programs in Australia. Spotlight Retail Group now states that the Spotlight VIP Club has over 10 million members. I was interested to see what all the fuss was about, so I signed up.

Joining Spotlight VIP Club

The joining process is very simple. Customers can join in-store or online by providing an email address. I was online at the time, and I could see plenty of advertising for the Spotlight VIP Club. The website encouraged customers to join to access VIP discounts and exclusive offers.

Once you complete the sign-up process online, you receive a welcome email. This outlines the benefits of the program and provides a welcome gift of $10 off your next purchase. This is a great initial surprise and delight. The 30-day redemption period also helps Spotlight encourage repeat purchases. It gives members a reason to return in-store or online.

I also requested a physical member card during the sign-up process and received this in the mail a week later. This was another good opportunity for the program to promote the benefits, as well as reminding me to provide my birthday so I would receive a $10 gift on the day.

Spotlight VIP Club member benefits

As a loyalty program, the Spotlight VIP Club is a very simple model that doesn’t include points or tiers. The program is built around member benefits that save money on products. It also provides VIP offers, early sale alerts and exclusive events.

Current Spotlight VIP Club benefits include a $10 welcome voucher and $10 off on your birthday. Members also receive VIP offers and events, 10% off paper patterns, early sale alerts and exclusive emails. Other benefits include 20–30% off party products every day, and 30–40% off made-to-measure curtains, blinds and shutters.

The simplicity of the program may be by design. There is no obvious points currency, tier status or complicated reward structure for members to navigate. This may also align with why the program has historically used a physical member card, although members can also identify themselves in other ways at checkout.

Physical Card

Most loyalty programs have made the jump from physical card to digital, or at least a hybrid model of both. The Spotlight VIP Club provides the option of a physical card, with the opportunity to use the barcode at the bottom of the welcome email as a proxy digital card.

My recommendation would still be to provide a real digital card for members. If members are expected to find an email with a barcode at checkout, then they should also be able to store a proper digital card on their mobile.

Customer service also let me know that members can use their name , phone number or email at the time of purchase to identify themselves as a member. This is a useful workaround.

Email Communication

Since joining the program, I received one email welcoming me to the program and providing a gift of $10 off my next purchase with a minimum spend of $50. I then received a second email wishing me a happy birthday with a $10 gift voucher. This second email was generated by me updating my birthday details within my account profile.

Ten days after joining the program, it feels like you are included in the traditional eDM customer journey, which has been an email every other day for the next 20 days promoting different products and sales. There are also several additional VIP Club emails within this time reminding me to take advantage of the $10 gift card that I have before it expires. All in all, this is a large number of emails to receive at the start of a program and may be a bit overwhelming for some.

Having said that, there is a great feature within my account to choose my interests and the types of content I will receive in these emails, as well as the ability to choose how I am communicated to, either by email, mobile or not at all.

My only recommendation here would be to make it really clear to new members that they can tailor their experience within the account profile section of their membership. There is a button to update your profile at the bottom of the welcome email, but not everyone will go into this right away or know that they can manage communication through this.

Spotlight VIP Club Summary

I must take my hat off to the Spotlight VIP Club and the sheer number of members it has attracted. However, I can’t help but think there is still an amazing opportunity to turn this into one of the leading loyalty programs in Australia with a few changes and a reviewed loyalty program strategy.

By better understanding each individual member and their shopping and spending habits, Spotlight could personalise communication and offers, and reward members based on their spend and loyalty. Many loyalty programs achieve this through a tier-based program, which rewards customers based on their level of engagement or spending.

This also allows brands to better segment their members and make sure they are investing the right amount of time and energy based on the member’s value to the company.

I look forward to staying a Spotlight VIP Club member over the years to come and seeing how this program evolves.

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