Loyalty Programs

Retailers have consistently relied upon loyalty programs that offer incentivizing rewards to consumers in exchange for repeat business. In fact, according to the 2017 COLLOQUY Loyalty Census, U.S. consumers hold 3.8 billion memberships in customer loyalty programs. While many retailers equate membership with loyalty, often this is a false indicator. To illustrate a more accurate…

Loyalty programs are extremely prevalent these days; it seems everywhere you might make any kind of purchase offers you a rewards card. While some retailers do loyalty better than others, consumer opinions of these kinds of programs are varied. Accenture found that 23 percent of global consumers demonstrate a negative or non-existent reaction to loyalty…

Creating an authentic, real and honest connection with your customers is critical to acquiring their loyalty. This was a key takeaway from a session yesterday at IRCE 2018 in Chicago about building loyalty through high-touch customer service. Ryan Lane, founder and CEO of Dream Beard, a men’s product and lifestyle brand, detailed the company's efforts…

Consumer behavior has shifted. While many shoppers now prefer smaller, more customer experience-oriented retailers, at the same time, they value e-commerce because they believe it offers better choice, convenience and price. While more than half of today’s consumers are regularly completing transactions online, several industry experts are finding that customers still want to feel connected…

In this week's episode of Retail Right Now, Total Retail's Caitlin Sullivan and Joe Keenan discuss customer loyalty programs, including the growing trend of paid programs (think Amazon Prime), what customers expect from loyalty programs, and the steps retailers can take to improve their loyalty program. For more information on this topic, check out Kayla…

A key trend to emerge from Total Retail's second annual Top 100 Omnichannel Retailers report was that retailers are allowing their customers to access, earn and redeem their loyalty points across the different channels in which the retailers operate (e.g., online, store, mobile, app, etc.). Of the 100 retailers analyzed for the report, nearly three-quarters…

Right now, grab your wallet. Dig past the bills, receipts and gum wrappers, and you'll likely stumble upon something you haven't seen in years: customer rewards cards. Since the ’90s, most every retailer has offered some sort of customer loyalty program. But when was the last time you actually felt, well, rewarded by one? More…

Starting today, Amazon.com and Whole Foods are making changes to its Prime loyalty program. The much-anticipated changes offer special discounts to Amazon Prime customers, including 10 percent off hundreds of sale items and rotating weekly specials. A report from Reuters states the new strategy will further expand on Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods by offering…

Starting today, Amazon.com and Whole Foods are making changes to its Prime loyalty program. The much-anticipated changes offer special discounts to Amazon Prime customers, including 10 percent off hundreds of sale items and rotating weekly specials. A report from Reuters states the new strategy will further expand on Amazon’s acquisition of Whole Foods by offering […]

Hardly a day goes by when you don’t visit a store, restaurant or supermarket and have an employee ask, “Do you belong to our loyalty program?” Loyalty (or rewards) programs have become ubiquitous — a fact of life in American business. Accordingly, it's helpful to ask what the role of a loyalty program should be…