Never Forget Your Loyalty Card Again
Loyalty programs are structured marketing efforts designed to reward and encourage loyal buying behavior. Typically a plastic or paper card is issued to the customer and it contains a bar code or magnetic strip that can be easily scanned. Easily scanned that is, if you have your loyalty card with you!
How many times have you been asked for your loyalty card only to realize you don’t have it with you? There go all of the points or discounts you could have received with that purchase. The truth is that with so many loyalty cards most people don’t always carry them around in their wallet. And while some may resort to a Ziplock bag, or perhaps even a special separate wallet, often they just forego the rewards and hope to remember their card next time.
A way to combat this problem: the Digital Wallet. Digital wallets are electronic devices, typically smartphones, that allow individuals to make ecommerce transactions. Not only can digital wallets store loyalty card information, they can also hold gift cards and even make financial transactions. Google Wallet is one such app where you can take a photograph of the front and back of your card and manage your points and balances, all in one central location. By storing all payment information securely and compactly, digital wallets largely eliminate the need to carry a physical wallet.
In the U.S., consumer enthusiasm for certain benefits enabled by mobile payments remains high, especially around easier usage of coupons and loyalty points. In fact, 70% of consumers believe that mobile payments at the point of sale will be widely available in three to five years. When you consider the fact that smartphones are essentially appendages of Millennials’ bodies and that they use them intuitively, it is hard to imagine that every mobile device in the marketplace won’t soon be equipped with mobile wallet apps.
Bullets
- Most U.S. consumers (57%) join brand loyalty programs—both card-based and digital—to receive discounts on products and services, according to a recent report from TechnologyAdvice. The second most-cited reason for participation in loyalty programs (38% of survey respondents) is to earn benefits, such as points that can later be redeemed for rewards. Earning VIP status is the distant third most-cited reason for participating in loyalty programs (4% of respondents), followed by social recognition rewards, such as FourSquare badges (0.8%). (marketingprofs.com)
- 20% of Yelp reviews are fake, according to a Harvard Business School study published last fall. And Bing Liu, a data-mining expert at the University of Illinois, Chicago, puts the overall number of fake reviews closer to 30%. (techlicious.com)
- 3 in 4 American adults claim to be very or somewhat concerned about having too much personal information about them online. The majority of respondents have little to no trust in social media sites, and 6 in 10 believe it likely that social networks sell their contact information. (marketingcharts.com)
- Families with children in grades K-12 will spend an average of $699.28 this back-to-school season on apparel, shoes, supplies and electronics, finds the NRF in a recent survey. While that represents a 5% increase from last year’s average per-family spend, total spending is expected to remain mostly flat at $26.5 billion due to fewer students in households. (marketingcharts.com)
- Business-to-consumer (B2C) ecommerce sales worldwide will reach $1.47 trillion in 2014, according to new figures from eMarketer, increasing nearly 20% over 2013. (emarketer.com)