 Your new post is loading...
Your new post is loading...
Retailers are trying hard to catch up with consumer demand for products in-store, online, on mobile and other emerging channels. While 90% of US shopping is still done in-store, the value of online, mobile and other channels is increasing quickly. CB Insights recently published a fascinating report on 72 companies using technologies like wearables, augmented reality and beacons to bridge the gap between digital and physical shopping. Today, we’re looking at eight of these tech innovators in the coupons and rewards, and loyalty segments to keep you up-to-date with the latest digital tools for retailers.
Gary Friedman has a pronounced distaste for discounts. The outspoken Restoration Hardware chairman and CEO blames the retail sector’s reliance on sales and pricing promotions for many of the problems facing the upscale home furnishings chain.
“Much of how we behave promotionally is left over from the Great Recession,” Friedman wrote in a February letter to shareholders published ahead of Restoration Hardware’s disappointing Q4 2015 earnings report. “The multiple sale events and email communications do not reflect the brand we are building, nor are these promotions aligned with how our customers shop with us.”
Restoration Hardware is eliminating traditional promotions altogether in favor of introducing a premium customer rewards program. Priced at $100 per year, its new RH Grey Card offers shoppers a flat 25% savings on all regularly priced merchandise across all of Restoration Hardware’s brands, along with 10% savings on clearance merchandise, complimentary interior design services and reduced interest rates on its RH credit card.
“Our lives are filled with complexity—and we long to break through the clutter to find simplicity,” Friedman said in a press release announcing the RH Grey Card program. “We want to shop for what we want, when we want and receive the greatest value. So rather than navigating countless promotions, we’re changing things… because time is the ultimate luxury.”...
For many, coupons have strange connotations. They're something moms cut out, or they're only used by poor folks or the elderly.
In reality, the opposites of these are true - coupons are incredibly popular among affluent folks and millennials (not to mention every other demographic), and they don't even have to be printed out anymore, so keep your scissors in the junk drawer. As these statistics reveal, the coupon is still a driving force in commerce that connects people (and their wallets) to brands. People will never tire of saving money, and brands are always looking to bring in new customers. Mix in a decade-long struggling economy, and you have a savings-savvy mindset that isn't going away anytime soon.
Enjoy this collection of coupon stats, which we plan to keep updated with the most current and relevant research on an ongoing basis. If your company has completed research into these fields that we should include, please let us know....
When The Wise Marketer's team began to research and write 'The Loyalty Guide 7', they found that the loyalty market has never been so active, so passionate, so fast changing, and so heavily relied-upon by companies of all sizes to drive customer retention and acquisition, incremental sales and profitability, competitive differentiation, engagement and advocacy.
After completing work on The Loyalty Guide 7, the team reviewed their findings and drew up their 'Top sixty new lessons in loyalty marketing' from the report's 1,420 pages of up-to-date facts, figures, forecasts, trends and loyalty case studies from all around the world....
There are a lot of loyalty programs out there that don’t do justice to the term loyalty. On average, consumers belong to eight loyalty programs. Do the companies that offer loyalty programs really understand loyalty? Or are they just implementing programs to keep up with their peers?
Did you know that 56% of affluent middle-class Americans are currently members of bank loyalty initiatives? However, only 23% of consumers say that offers or deals they receive from businesses are relevant to them. The remaining 77% think the offers they receive via email or mail completely miss the mark in terms of relevancy.
More and more consumers are becoming exhausted with the constant stream of offers or deals they’re barraged with daily. A phenomenon that is known as ‘offer fatigue‘ – a customer’s resistance to reading through yet another deal, coming at them via every communication channel imaginable....
The 2015 Loyalty Report saw an increasing number of people opt-in to a variety of loyalty programs in the past year, and revealed the extent to which programs are effective in influencing customer behavior show no signs of diminishing.
Here's a Top 5 list of what's trending in loyalty....
Enrollment levels in customer loyalty programs may have reached an all-time high, but that doesn't mean all loyalty programs are created equal or that all customers are equally loyal.
According a study recently released by Bond Brand Loyalty, as many as one-third of all loyalty program participants wouldn't remain loyal to the brand if it weren't for the program.Some executives might not care beyond the surface sales data, but expect that sentiment to change in the near future.
Customers are becoming more selective about loyalty programs despite having increased their enrollment from 10 in 2014 to 13 in 2015. Mostly, they want to avoid spam-centric programs that push out content and opt in to those that truly listen and understand their customers....
According to the research survey, 62% of U.S. consumers join retail brand loyalty programs to get discounts but only 36% have received a reward or promotion from the program that actually made them come back to the brand. One reason might be the fact that, according to the survey results, 81% of brand loyalty program members don’t understand the benefits they’re supposed to get from the program or how the program works at all.
Brand loyalty programs can provide a lot of benefits to marketers but the more the program is customized for each customers needs the better chance of success.Loyalty is different for each customer. The key is to provide enough loyalty experiences that your best customers are appreciated. As we all know, the 80-20 rule holds true for most retail and restaurant businesses. Find those 20% and figure out what makes them loyal, get to know them. Acknowledge different customers by basing your loyalty program on services that you provide each time they visit. Give your customers something to work towards by offering a tiered program where the best customers receive more points per purchase in appreciation for their long-time support of your business....
|
Gift cards used to be a last-minute purchase when consumers were stuck for a last-minute gift, but they’re now a gift selected because it gives the recipient more buying choices and flexibility. The gift card marketplace continues to evolve and we’ve got some research and innovations to share to keep you up-to-date on gift card trends. CEB reported US gift card sales in 2015 totaled more than$129.7 billion, a 6.3% increase over 2014 sales of $122 billion. A new research report by CashStar showed 91% of consumers were happy with their gift cards. The same report showed digital gift cards were the biggest growing gift card segment up 26% to $7.1 billion in 2015. According to the Incentive Research Foundation, another big trend in gift cards in 2016 is the increase in luxury gift cards for purchasing electronics (cited by 31% of respondents), open-loop gift cards (28%), luggage (24%), and watches (23%). Lyft and Starbucks launched a joint gift card promotion each selling the other’s gift cards. C-stores have seen the impact of technology and are experimenting with digital and mobile cards. Swych, Inc launched an innovative digital gift platform and iOS mobile app for US consumers who can use a unique app to send “Swychable” gift cards redeemable at favorite retailers. Research by National Gift Card Corp shows 72% of sales came from three categories: big-box retailers (29%), open loop rewards cards such as Visa and AMEX (23%) and entertainment cards (10%)....
Customer brand loyalty is a rich and complex subject to grasp, but there is a lot of data around the subject. For your convenience, we've compiled dozens of statistics to help light the way - from how many people are active in loyalty programs to what they're looking to get out of them and how they'd like to be communicated with. We've tried to make this list as relevant as possible, which means we combed through recent research with a focus on the US (with the occasional global stat thrown in).
These stats are culled from a variety of sources, and we've provided source links for each of them (though some are gateway pages that require you to register or submit your information to receive the actual research). Sometimes the data conflict with other sources - we'll leave it up to you to decipher which is most accurate.
We'll keep this list updated on a weekly basis with the latest and greatest. If you know of a stat we're missing, or want your own research included in our collection, leave us a note in the comments....
One great way to garner happy returning customers is through customer loyalty programs.
They're not just great for your business: customers like them, too: - 76% of consumers think that loyalty programs are a part of their relationship with brands -- and - 83% said loyalty programs make them more likely to continue doing business with certain companies.
What's the true value of customer loyalty programs, and what are the right and wrong ways to do them?...
It’s hard to believe that loyalty programs once weren’t an industry standard. Loyalty programs, in their current form, didn’t truly emerge until the 1980s. Even still, it took another decade for the card-based loyalty programs that most consumers currently utilize to gain popularity. Today, the trend is in full force: from retailers to restaurants to hotels, there isn’t a customer-centric industry that hasn’t embraced the concept. But these programs aren’t cheap and the question of whether they pay back is a widely debated topic.
What can’t be debated is that loyalty programs provide the ability to track your customers over time, understand their behavior, and establish a one-to-one communication channel with each individual customer. This targeted communication channel is where the secret to monetizing your loyalty program lies.
The purpose of a loyalty program can be condensed into a simple sentence: Loyalty programs help you figure out who your best customers are and provide them with right incentives to spend more money with you. It sounds straightforward, but in practice, most companies struggle to achieve this goal.
The challenges associated with this goal are clear when we focus on three key phrases in the sentence: “best customers,” “right incentives,” and “spend more money.”Let’s dive into each of these aspects:...
Rewarding customer loyalty also delivers rewards for brands. Research has found that 70% of consumers would be persuaded to choose a brand if it offered such rewards.
But it goes beyond that. Consumers are savvier than ever and tend to shop around for the best deal, so it’s tricky for companies to stand out. You may offer a good product, but the chances are it’s available elsewhere, too. They want more.
Nowadays it’s more about the service; the whole package that comes with the product. Rewarding loyal customers is essential to ensure that they feel appreciated, maximising the chances of retention....
Consumers love a great loyalty program. In fact, loyalty programs are more popular than ever. A recent study titled, The Loyalty Report 2015, showed that the overall influence of a loyalty program on customer behavior appears to be increasing.
This is positive news for loyalty marketers, but it is not a cause for overconfidence. Many brands offer some form of rewards and incentives, and consumers also have more choice than ever before. Even despite their ubiquitous popularity, if a loyalty program does not stand out, or fails to differentiate itself from the competition, it will still fall behind.
Tuesday’s Loyalty360 webinar presented by Bond Brand Loyalty called, “Resolving Five Tensions on the Evolution to Brand Loyalty,” centered on this topic and focused on some of the essential takeaways from the Loyalty Report 2015...
Walmart and Walgreens are using apps to make personalized offers to shoppers right as they’re in the store. The apps also keep track of past purchases, brand preferences and where people like to shop.
Starbucks has a wildly successful mobile payments app that saves coffee drinkers money while giving them great offers they really want on — surprise! — coffee. You probably have other brands and programs on your own phone. And you’ll notice that besides being direct and easy to use, they all rely on — and even revel in — data....
|
Useful update on coupon and loyalty program innovators.