Hasbro Pulse - Premium Membership Needs To Improve

6/21/2021 Hasbro Pulse

HasbroPulse.com, which is Hasbro's collector focused retail website, launched in February 2019 and while it holds a lot of promise it still has to find its footing with Star Wars action figure collectors.  

During the first two years early adopters enjoyed a free premium membership which came with free shipping, and during those two years we've seen the potential HasbroPulse holds for fans. There was a party organized by Pulse for premium members at San Diego Comic Con 2019, and fans who attended Star Wars Celebration Chicago had exclusive access to purchase the Black Series 6" Luke Skywalker and Darth Maul convention figures. Those perks were great, but unfortunately it only applied to a small segment of fans who were able to travel to those conventions. The biggest payoff came last year when premium members had one day early access to exclusives, not to all of them, but at least to some. 

This past March free memberships for early adopters expired and Hasbro asked for a $50 renewal fee. Many of us were wondering if it was worth it, and for the first half a year of 2021 it certainly was not. This year so far Hasbro Pulse offered an exclusive Vintage Collection Republic Trooper figure, which was available to the general public with no pre-order window for paying members, and they limited the quantity to three. Hasbro Pulse also offered three Black Series 6" Lucasfilm 50th anniversary figures in POTF2 tribute packaging, but again those figures were available to the general public with no early access to paying members. 

In order for the Hasbro Pulse $50 membership to become worth it for Star Wars fans we'd like to see following improvements:

• Early access, early access, early access for your premium members who collect Star Wars, not just other brands. Give paying members one day ahead of the regular public to place an order. People have jobs and can't be online all the time or even be online at a specifc time. Give the option to let people come home from work, sit down and spend their money without having to stress out about missing out right away. 
• Allow fans to purchase 2 of each figure. Some of us rip figures off their cards (raises hand!), some of us keep them in their packaging, and some of us might collect two of each, especially when the packaging is special (as is the case with the POTF2 figures).
• Add the option for bundles. Why have us come to your website and navigate to each product individually? This increases the server load/traffic and slows us down placing an order. It might cause us to even miss out on a figure entirely. Offer a bundle! In the case of the POTF2 tribute Black Series 6" figures, offer a bundle with 1 of each figure in it, this way only one order needs to be placed and you only need to process one cc transaction instead of three different ones. Offer a second bundle with two of each in it. 
• Add the option for clamshells or a MINT GUARANTEE. This is a lesser issue for the more sturdy Black Series boxes, but certainly an issue for 3 3/4" Vintage Collection figures where cards bend easily. This also goes for surface scratches on the cards and bubbles. Since you cater specifically to collectors we hold you to a higher standard than Amazon, Walmart, Target etc... because you are not catering to the mass market where the retailer doesn't know the difference between somebody buying diapers or a limited edition action figure.
• Back-in-stock email alerts and product announcement emails arrive after the product was launched or re-stocked, and many times have sold out again by then. 
• Be more tactful. Your fans voted for the Republic Trooper to be re-released in the Vintage Collection, and when the figure went on pre-order you limited its availability.

Free shipping with the $50 premium membership is great, but other shops offer free shipping when a certain threshold is met without such a fee. ShopDisney.com (which will carry the shared exclusive TVC Republic Trooper and all 3 TBS POTF2 figures) for example offers free shipping with a minimum purchase of $75, which when one of each of the Black Series POTF2 shared exclusive tribute figures is purchased, would be met. Other online retailers such as Target, Best Buy and Gamestop also offer free shipping with a much lower threshold without us having to pay a $50 membership fee.

So unfortunately, as of June 21st, 2021 of this year the $50 membership fee on HasbroPulse.com is not worth it for Star Wars fans and hopefully we'll see some changes in the future to make it worth signing up.