Personalization in Retail
Oracle has released a report predicting what’s next is retail loyalty. Personalization is chief among the big trends, as retailers will seek a competitive advantage from listening to and better understanding their customers. Interestingly, Oracle predicts an increase in loyalty rewards for customer advocacy—a trend we at Loyalty360 have noticed is still in the early stages, but increasingly, brands are moving in that direction.
Hilton Picks Up Marriott Loyalty Members
Substantive changes to Marriott’s loyalty program (following a 2018 data breach) may have sent customers Hilton’s way. The brand added 14 million new Hilton Honors members in 2018.
“I suspect that we are benefiting by getting members of other programs that are shifting their loyalty,” says Christopher Nassetta, Chief Executive Officer of Hilton. “I can’t give you hard data on who’s come exactly from where, and, to a degree, as long as they are great customers that we can get engaged with us, we don’t care.”
It’s fascinating (and cautionary) to see that that issues with a loyalty program can move customers away in numbers like that.
McDonald’s Australia Ditches Paper Loyalty Cards
McDonald’s Australia is bringing an end to paper loyalty cards (which can be used to get free coffee, after enough purchases), forcing customers to download the McDonald’s rewards app. The move has been met with numerous complaints on social media. Several people noted that friends and relatives who cannot use smart phones are now unable to participate in the loyalty program. These complaints highlight the often-overlooked limitations and disadvantages of an app-based loyalty program.
Amazon Launches New Loyalty Rewards Program
Amazon has announced the launch of Moments, a self-service loyalty offering. Marketers can use Moments to set their own goals and loyalty campaign budget, and upon doing so, Amazon creates a custom landing page. The social platform TikTok has already adopted the system.
Needless to say, do-it-yourself loyalty programs are a fascinating development, and it will be interesting to see if a big name like Amazon is able to popularize such programs (notably, Zinrelo has for some time now had a self-service platform for clients on a budget).