The British menswear brand Percival was founded over 10 years ago, but it’s only in the last few years that it’s truly come into its own.
In the last three months, buzzy collaborations with sportswear brands like Umbro and Champion, non-fashion brands like Campari, and even media properties like “Seinfeld” have raised its profile. And endorsements of celebrities including Chris Evans and Tom Holland have introduced Percival to a new American audience.
Now, the brand is aiming to capitalize on its buzz by expanding outside of its U.K. home. It’s also introducing a tiered loyalty program to help keep the new customers who have discovered the brand in the past year.
Natasha Dabell-Jones, CRM manager at Percival, said the brand’s loyalty program has been in the works for about a year. A questionnaire given to customers six months ago, in which more than 60% said they wanted the brand to reward loyal customers, fueled the program’s completion. The program has three tiers with increasing levels of reward points and perks.
The unique element of the program comes in the fourth tier, called The Closed Circle. It’s currently made up of about 50 of the most valuable Percival customers, who have been invited to a private WhatsApp chat. Percival founder Chris Gove, head of marketing Terry Donovan, and senior retail and VIP manager Alfie-Lee Marcus are active in the chat.
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“We still want it to be exclusive,” Dabell-Jones said. “So we’ll slow down invites and probably only ask around five or 10 new people to join per quarter. And we try to make sure it’s a good mix of all of our types of customers. It’s not just the big spenders, it’s a cross-section of different types of customers in different places.”
In this private group, Gove offers sneak previews of new products and collaborations, as well as steeper discounts than the ones Percival puts out to the general public. Gove also solicits feedback from the members on things like marketing campaigns and product designs.
Percival launched the lower tiers in June, and The Closed Circle launched in early August. But already, the brand has seen results. Loyalty members at all levels are already spending an average of 75% more compared to the brand’s non-loyalty members.
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Along with that new focus on customer retention, Percival is aiming to capitalize on its growing U.S. shopper base. The last three years have seen an average of 311% year-over-year growth in Percival’s American shoppers. Dabell-Jones said the brand will aim to keep those U.S. customers through pop-ups. The first American pop-up is planned to open in New York City later this year, Dabell-Jones said.
Percival is primarily DTC in both the U.S. and U.K., though it does have wholesale partners like Liberty London in the U.K. In addition, Percival will soon be announcing a U.S. wholesale partner. The brand also has a small but loyal audience in parts of Asia and will be pursuing more business there in the future.
Dabell-Jones declined to share the name of the U.S. wholesaler and revenue figures for Percival. But Percival has increased its international revenue by around 900% in the last months.
Despite the new U.S. focus, Dabell-Jones said the brand doesn’t want to lose its Britishness. The New York pop-up will incorporate elements of soccer, a common theme in Percival’s branding that extends from its collaborations to its marketing campaigns. Earlier this month, it teamed with British soccer brand Umbro on a product collaboration and posted humorous soccer-themed videos to promote it.
And while some recent fashion earnings have shown flagging luxury sales in the U.S., it’s not all bad. Recent data shows that American retail spending is starting to bounce back. In July, Americans spent $696 billion in retail, which was 3% more than the same month last year, according to the Consumer Price Index or CPI.
“Surprisingly, Mexico has still been performing really well for us, so North America is still good,” Dabell-Jones said. “For the U.S., we have seen a bit of slowdown, but not a decline, and we’re happy with where our American business is heading.”
