Loyalty program

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Loyalty program is a structured marketing strategy designed by merchants to encourage customers to continue shopping or to use the business services associated with each program. These programs exist that cover most types of trades, each with various features and reward schemes.

In more specific general and retail marketing, loyalty cards, gift cards, point cards, profit cards , or club cards are plastic or paper cards, visually similar to credit cards , debit card, or digital card that identifies the cardholder as a participant in the loyalty program. Loyalty cards (both physical and digital) relate to the loyalty business model. In the UK such cards are usually called "loyalty cards", in Canada in the form of "gift cards" or "point cards", in the United States "discount cards", "club cards" or "cards" gift cards "and in Australia cards" cards customer "or" name-in -quest ", for example:" Card Coles. "Cards usually have a barcode, magstripe or RFID chip that can be easily scanned, even if some chip cards or proximity cards. small (also known as keytags) that serve as the primary key brings comfort in carrying and ease of access.

By presenting such cards, buyers usually get a good right to discount on current purchases, or to designation points they can use for future purchases. Therefore cards are a visible tool for implementing what economists call a two-part tariff. The application form for the card usually requires an agreement by the store related to customer privacy, usually non-disclosure (by store) non-aggregate data about the customer. The store uses aggregate data internally (and sometimes externally) as part of its marketing research. Over time, data may reveal, for example, a particular customer's favorite beer brand, or whether he's a vegetarian. If the customer has provided sufficient identifying information, the loyalty card may also be used to access the information to speed verification when receiving checks or dispensing preparations for medical prescriptions, or for other membership privileges (for example, access to the club lounge at the airport, using frequent flyer cards ).

One can think of loyalty programs as a centralized form of virtual currency, one with unconverted cash flow, since reward points can be redeemed into goods or services but not into cash.

B2B loyalty programs (business-to-business) reward businesses for the purchase of recurring goods and services from suppliers.

Video Loyalty program

History

For information on the historical loyalty program, see Loyalty marketing history.

Maps Loyalty program

By continent and country

Asia

Hong Kong

Hong Kong offers many loyalty programs. They include Octopus Rewards, operated by Octopus Cards Limited, which allows Octopus card users to earn points in certain stores, including McDonald's fast food outlets and Wellcome supermarket. MTR Corporation also operates the MTR Club for regular customers of its transport network. In terms of shopping or purchasing groceries, different chain stores under common ownership often share the same loyalty program, such as the U.S. Watson Group's Money Back , which can be used at Parknshop, Watsons, and Fortress stores, as well as corporate retail partners.

India

PAYBACK India (formerly i-mint) is India's largest coalition loyalty program, with more than 50 million members, more than 50 partners and 3,000 partner network partners. Loyalty Partner's German loyalty program operator took control of i-mint in June 2010 and renamed India PAYBACK program in July 2011. The GoodLife Hero program claims more than 10 million members. The PetroBonus fuel card program from BPCL has 2 million members. India's Oil XTRAPOWER fleet program and the XTRAREWARDS retail program claim a combined customer base of 3 million. Maruti Suzuki AutoCard, launched in partnership with Citibank and Indian Oil, has 370,000 cardholders in October 2008. Kingfisher Airlines FFP King Club has 2 million members in October 2010. Shopper's Stop has offered a loyalty program called First Citizen for regular customers. Other retailers such as Lifestyle (Loyalty Program of the Inner Circle) and Reliance Retail have loyalty programs.

Debit card loyalty programs including the World Bank Group's "SBI Rewardz" may be the largest Enterprise Wide Loyalty Program in the world with more than 110 million registered subscribers. This program is operated by Loylty Rewardz. Pinpoint operates the HSBC and Standard Chartered Bank programs. The potential and size of India's consumer base has attracted players such as Groupe Aeroplan and Loyalty One to the country.

Indonesia

Centro Friend Card is a loyalty card for Centro Central Store Buyers. Love Your Body Card is a loyalty card for Body Shop shop in Indonesia. Other important programs in Asia include KrisFlyer, the Singapore Airlines reward program.

Iran

The Iran loyalty program was first launched in 1996 by the Iranian Zarrin Card Credit Card Group (or Advantage Card). "East Credit Card Group Kish" launched a loyalty card since 2005 in Iran. These companies manage many brands on the same platform, such as Iran Zoggs and Novin Leather. Maadiran Group has a loyalty program.

Malaysia

In Malaysia, the BonusLink program was introduced in a joint venture between Shell, Parkson, Maxis and MBF. The BonusLink program is a coalition with earnings and redemption partners that allow members to earn points at a number of Malaysian retailers. Mesra Card is for Petronas and used for fuel and in Mesra stores.

Genting Highlands Resort has a loyalty card, WorldCard, which is mainly used to earn points at the resorts and Genting Highlands Attractions. However, it can also be used for Starbucks, Coffee Bean and HÃƒÆ'Ã‚Â¤agen-Dazs and is applicable in three countries, namely Malaysia (where Genting Group is based), Singapore and Hong Kong. Jusco has a loyalty card, known as the Aeon Card.

In early 2008, ValueClub Marketing and Services Sdn. Bhd. The launching of V-Kad in North Malaysia, especially in the state of Penang. V-Kad has been active together by various industries such as F & amp; B, fashion, salon and optics. It provides V-Kad members to collect V-Points to redeem prizes and exchange services with participating merchants.

Philippines

In the Philippines, some corporate and store brands offer membership cards that cardholders can use to earn points and redeem prizes.

A huge shopping center chain, SM Supermalls offers SM or SMAC SM Card which can be used as a loyalty card that earns points when you shop and its partner bank, BDO Unibank also offers a BDO Gift Card that works the same as SM Benefit Cards. This card can be used in SM Store, SM Supermarket, SM Hypermarket, ACE Hardware, Watsons Pharmacy, and other retail brands that accept cards.

Another mall chain, Robinsons has a Robinsons Prize. It can also be used when shopping at Robinsons Department Store, Robinsons Supermarket, and Toys "R" Us branch in the Philippines.

Jollibee, the fast food giant and its subsidiaries (Chowking, Greenwich Pizza and Red Ribbon launch HappyPlus cards, where cardholders can use the card to earn happy points and use points to get free food.) It is also planned to be used in Mang Inasal, the newest member of Jollibee Foods Corporation.

The country's leading drugstore, Mercury Drug also introduces the Suki Card where its membership is free but the applicant will need to purchase at least a single or cumulative purchase worth PhP 1,000.

Shanghai

The Smartclub program allows all Shanghai residents to get free SmartPoints, whenever they take the subway, bus or taxi. These SmartPoints can be combined with points earned at McDonald's, eLong, Sport100, cinemas, bookstores, and other SmartClub partner retailers.

Singapore

In Singapore, the three biggest loyalty programs are Plus !, WorldCard (Genting Resorts combined program, Suntec City Mall, Star Cruises & Indigoz) and SAFRA Card. The Plus! The LinkPoints program has over 1 million members and more than 600 participating merchant outlets. Poket is also a new market based in Singapore in this market.

Taiwan

The French retailer Carrefour has introduced a new loyalty scheme where customers can earn and redeem points for purchases made in the store and also earn additional points for all purchases made using a Carrefour branded credit card. The largest online gift program in Taiwan is RewardsCentral (formerly known as EmailCash).

Europe

Finnish

Loyalty program is very popular in Finland. 80% of people are in at least one loyalty program and over 50% are members of at least two programs. Two big coalitions with loyal programs that operate in various business sectors. This is the S-Group with S-Etukortti (70% of the population, 2014) and Kesko with K-Plussa (67%). These cards can be equipped with a Visa or MasterCard Debit/Credit feature. Both loyalty programs are aggressively driven to consumers. The new main players in the Finnish and Baltic markets are Pins (19%).

Georgia

In Georgia, the largest loyalty card program is run by Universal Card Corporation since 2010. The universal scheme brings together over 250 companies where customers collect bonus points on UNICARD when purchasing food, goods, clothing/clothing, fuel, travel packages, tickets, pharmacies, GYM passes or other services. UNICARD holders may redeem their bonus points on any product presented in a particular partner store where redemption is available or be a desirable gift presented in the UNICARD online catalog.

German

The biggest loyalty program in Germany is Payback, which was launched in 2000. According to a study in August 2007 by GfK, 61% of German households have Payback cards. This listed program HappyDigits has a 42% share, with Shell ClubSmart program as the third most popular with 13%. In March 2008, the DeutschlandCard coalition program was launched by Arvato. As of March 2009, they have over 4.5 million active cardholders. HappyDigits is dissolved no later than 2009/2010.

Hungarian

Two coalition loyalty programs in Hungary are SuperShop and Multipoint. SuperShop, founded in April 2000, is supported by premium partner hu: SuperShop Spar, OBI, OMV, Photo hall, Burger King.

Italy

Popular loyalty program in Italy: After the Nectar out of market in 2015, Payback is the most popular coalition loyalty program with more than 10 million cardholders and relevant relevant partners such as Carrefour, Esso, H3G (Tre), Mediaset Premium, BNL BNP Paribas and over 60 online partners.

The Esselunga, Coop and Il Gigante supermarket chains also have an established loyalty program. Other stores such as Interio, furniture retailers, also join the market with loyalty cards and store-based credit cards.

Loyalty programs are also widespread in the Consumer Goods Industry, where companies use this powerful tool to build long-lasting consumer-brand relationships. The first example of a loyalty program in the food industry was Lavazza Carmencita's 2008 digital collection followed by many other brands such as Barilla, Casa Modena-Giravolte and Tena Lady from Multinational Sca Hygiene Products.

Latvian

The popular loyalty program in Latvia, with two major supermarket chains, Rimi Baltic and Maxima supermarkets, leads the field with their offerings. One of the biggest loyalty programs in Latvia that works as an operator for many traders is Pins.

Walmoo is a loyalty platform launched in 2013 that allows anyone to create their own loyalty program. It has been used in over 10 pilot-stores in the past year and will be available in the six largest ski resorts in the Vidzeme region. The NFC/QR system is based and can be used with Walmoo Wallet mobile apps, NFC tags or QR codes generated on the web.

Norwegian

Norway's largest loyalty program is Trumf. Trumf is a "brick and mortar" loyalty program owned by NorgesGruppen, a wholesale group wholesaler in Norway. KickBack.no is the largest online loyalty program and cashback website in Norway. KickBack.no is owned by Schibsted Media Group.

Republic of Ireland

In the Republic of Ireland loyalty cards have been in operation since 1993, when Superquinn introduced the SuperClub loyalty card scheme. This is considered a prototype for such a scheme in Europe. However, loyalty cards did not develop until 1997, when Tesco Ireland introduced its Clubcard scheme, shortly after the purchase of Electric Supermarkets. This is an expansion of the UK scheme (see above) Ãƒ, - the card for this is identical to that used by Tesco in the UK and can be used in both countries. Dunnes Stores responded with the introduction of their own ValueClub scheme in June 1997. Today are the three main schemes operating in Ireland, although ValueClub has been withdrawn from Northern Ireland's Dunnes stores. SuperValu has introduced their own loyal club called Real Rewards.

The five major chain petrol chains in the country operated the scheme during the late 1990s - Esso had "Tiger Miles" (with Tesco ClubCard points offered as an alternative), Maxol had "Points Plus", both operated on the principle of getting items from the gift catalog, with Shell uses the Dunnes, Texaco scheme using SuperQuinn system, and Statoil operates a cash-back system, "Premium Club". Due to rising oil prices and tightening margins, the scheme expired at the end of 2005. The Tesco Ireland gas station still, however, gives Clubcard points.

Games, large computer games and hardware retailers also operate cashback card schemes, which are merged with the Electronics Boutique program after the separation of their northern European stores into the hands of Game. The scheme returns a quarter of the expenditure, more than twice cheaper than Tesco.

Gift From Us To You is a hotel loyalty program for independent hotels in Belgium, The Netherlands, Ireland & amp; English. The company was founded in November 2011 by the parent hotel management company PREM Group, based in Dublin, Ireland. The program does not issue loyalty cards but does it all electronically via email. The company has more than 33 participating hotels and serviced apartments. Guests earn points each time staying with the hotel at the club. You can then redeem a free night's stay or gift card. In addition to this all members receive an exclusive allowance to register and stay at the hotel.

Russian

MALINA is a Russian coalition program. MALINA was washed in 2006 by Loyalty Partners Vostok. MALINA is a loyalty card scheme consisting of partner companies including BP, Rosinter Restaurant, Beeline, 36.6, and Raiffeisenbank. The MALINA program operates in Moscow and St. Petersburg. Petersburg collects more than 25 famous brands. More than 6 million collectors earn MALINA points when buying gasoline, visiting restaurants, making phone calls. Malina cards are accepted in over 1000 Partner POS. 6,096,051 Malina cards are issued from 2006 to 2012. The turnover on Malina cards is $ 1.5 billion in 2012. More than 2,000 goods and services are available for points in the Malina catalog (or Points can be redeemed by ordering more than 2000 items and services from catalog Malina).

Another Russian loyalty program is Mnogo.ru. This project is completely independent. Club members who have a membership card can earn points in exchange for daily purchases made online and offline at partner stores (from product to home appliance). Customers receive points when answering quizzes, playing games, and getting special offers. Cumulative points can be redeemed for rewards from corporate partners.

Mnogo.ru has over 3 000 000 members, and 72 Russian and international partners (eBay, Citibank, Moulinex, Electrolux, La Redoute, etc.)

Spanish

VoilÃƒÆ' Hotel Rewards was launched in June 2008 with "Husa Plus," a joint brand loyalty program for Husa Hoteles. The Husa Plus program is offered around 145 Husa Hotels, primarily located in Spain. Barcelona-based online travel agency, Budgetplaces, launched its loyalty program in early 2011. My budget allows clients to get credit every time they make a reservation.

Swiss

Popular loyalty program in Switzerland, with two major supermarket chains, Migros and Coop stand out. The M-Cumulus Card can be used in Migros supermarkets, Ex Libris (books, DVDs), SportXX, and other retailers. The Coop Supercard earns points on purchases at Coop and various other related stores. Other stores such as Interio, furniture retailers, also join the market with loyalty cards and store-based credit cards. The only coalition loyalty scheme in Switzerland is the Bonus Card with a network of more than 300 independent retail partners. In recent years, online loyalty programs have also started targeting Switzerland. First to do deals in Switzerland is Webmiles based in Germany. Claiming it as the first online bonus program in Switzerland, Bonuspoints was launched in early 2008 and offers incentives to shop at 70 different online stores. PointsPay, the world's first mobile wallet to exchange loyalty points or miles into cash, provide liquidity and flexibility to loyalty program members: They can redeem their points or miles in POS or for online shopping.

Turkish

The airlines offer loyalty cards for passengers to provide discounts. Pegasus Airlines has a loyalty program called Pegasus Plus that rewards each flight. Passengers can spend gift points as discounts without waiting to close full flights. Turkish Airlines has a loyalty program called Miles & amp; Smiles .

United Kingdom

The loyalty card market in the UK is one of the most significant in the world, with most of the major chains operating some form of gift systems . Passcard has been claimed as the first prize scheme or discount card, made by Gary Wilson in 1981 and came to be known as Passkey. One of the first loyalty cards supported by the main chain is believed to be the expenditure and savings of network cards in Sciencebury in 1982.

From the "big four" supermarkets, Sainsburys and Tesco and Morrisons operate loyalty cards for general supermarket shopping. Clubcard Clubco scheme has been criticized for not offering value for money. When Clubcard or Nectar points are used for money from supermarket shopping, they are roughly equal to a 0.5% discount, although the offer can raise this discount four times for certain payoffs. Some retailers with banking operations also give points for every pound spent on their credit cards, and bonus points for purchasing financial services. A report in The Economist suggests that the real benefits of loyalty cards to UK outlets are a huge potential of the marketing research potential they offer. Since 2015 Morrisons operates a "More" reward scheme that replaces the "Morrisons Miles" fuel purchase scheme. Unusual, customer's personal details are not collected so that purchases appear untracked. Voucher shipped at point of sale.

Following trials in 1994, Tesco launched the Clubcard program, the first supermarket-specific loyalty card scheme in the United Kingdom, in 1995 with dunnhumby. Sainsbury's launched a Gift Card in 1996. It was replaced by Nectar cards in 2002, which was launched in partnership with other major brands.

Boots UK began planning loyalty cards in November 1993, but built a CRM-focused loyalty program. With an investment of over 30 million GBP, the Boots Advantage Card, launched in 1997, is the largest retail card loyalty card scheme in the world, and the UK's third largest retail loyalty scheme in terms of cards issued. The Advantage scheme has 16.4 million card holders using online and in-store cards and at 3rd-party retailers. This scheme gives the cardholder four points for every pound spent in a shoe store in a normal shopping state. Most stores have kiosks that can be used along with cards for "exclusive offers" printed on vouchers and can be used at checkout. This voucher allows money from special purchases, additional points for certain purchases, or extra money or points when the expenses have reached the amount specified on the voucher, or other offerings such as multiple points on all specific products. For example, customers can get vouchers that give 250 extra points when they have spent Ãƒ, Ã‚ Â£ 50 in a single transaction. The same pence points are in the store, and can be spent anytime and on anything in the store, giving the card enough points to cover the entire cost of the merchandise. The kiosk system is replaced with Boot Apps in 2014, where customers can automatically load offers to their Advantage Card directly from their smartphone.

Safeway's ABC Card was discontinued in 2000. Airline, Hotel, and other loyalty schemes also offer cards. Marks and Spencer and John Lewis Partnership have credit cards that provide vouchers in exchange for expenses, and issue separate loyalty cards like myJohnLewis card, myWaitrose card in John Lewis Partnership and Sparks Card by Marks and Spencer. Game has a gift card scheme that each pound is spent on customers valued at 10 points; for every 1000 points collected, one gets Ãƒ, Â£ 2.50 to be redeemed at the store, or online. Preorders get customers 20 points per pound. HMV has a gift card called purehmv that lets customers claim a variety of gifts, including store discounts.

UK's largest retail bookbaker, Ladbrokes, launches Odds ON! loyalty program at the end of 2007, the first retail betting leverage scheme in Europe. Subscribers earn points on each bet that can be redeemed for free bonus joker and bet. Ladbrokes Poker operates a loyalty program for online poker players where players can exchange their poker points for prizes & amp; gift.

Maximiles is an online coalition program that claims 1.6 million members in the UK. Maximiles also operates online programs in France, Spain and Italy.

The opening of the first Best Buy store in the UK - in Thurrock, Essex, in 2010 - accompanied by the launch of a customer engagement program called My Best Buy. It is described as "digital loyalty and tiered customer engagement program designed to build lifelong relationships with customers by providing personalized experiences where they can manage their digital and technological needs." However, the business stopped trading in 2012: 11 stores closed in January, and My Best Buy closed on 29 February.

The Ice Organization launched MyIce.com in 2010, a scheme that rewards consumers for shopping in a more sustainable way. The ice mission is to promote more green goods and services to reduce climate change, and work with national and local retailers to encourage more local and sustainable consumerism.

The Co-operative Food, a brand adopted by many of the larger members of the British cooperative movement does not operate a traditional loyalty card scheme. Instead, as a consumer cooperative, they operate a revenue-sharing scheme where annual dividends are paid to all members-owners that are proportional to total expenses with the business over the previous year. Such a dividend scheme has been in existence since Rochdale Pioneers in the 1840s. Bookkeeping of paper records changed in 1960 to a trading postage scheme managed by the Commodity Wholesale Institution (CWS), which was gradually withdrawn as margin decreased. The concept of loyalty cards is used by some cooperatives to recover dividend payouts at the turn of the 21st century, especially by the CWS "Dividend" card, which is replaced by the Cooperative Membership card program. Current member dividend schemes are provided using national cooperative brands and allow members of the Cooperative Group and many of the larger regional cooperative societies to earn their 'share of profits' based on their spending in many outlets that use the Cooperative brand rather than only in their own cooperative society (eg Group of Cooperatives or Midcounties Cooperatives).

Previously operated by British Airways, Airmiles is the most popular aviation-related loyalty program in the UK, with 2.2. million members in 2011. Members may collect Airmiles whenever they fly with British Airways or affiliated airlines, both within the International Airlines Group and the Oneworld Alliance; points can then be redeemed for the flight, and popular with commercial and business customers. Airmiles-based programs often allow members to also earn points by shopping on affiliate cards, such as British Airways Premium Plus credit cards. Recast program in 2011 from Airmiles to Avios caused controversy as members are now required to pay taxes and fees on flights they use for redemption. Such schemes become more flexible and include redemption opportunities such as car rentals and days out, extending the way in which members can spend their points.

Loyalty card applications are becoming more popular, especially with small and independent businesses that are unable to create their own loyalty apps in the way that big businesses do.

North America

Canada

Canada's oldest loyalty program is Canadian Tire money, where the Canadian Tire company delivers coupons that look like currency. Air Miles is Canada's largest loyalty program - Air Miles can be obtained in over 100 different sponsors and nearly a thousand different awards. Other rewards established in 1992 mostly operate in Western Canadian provinces with close ties to their grocery partnerships with the Overwaitea Food Group and a small coalition of other retailers. Aeroplan started in 1984 as an Air Canada frequent flyer program, but since 2008 it has been owned by Aimia Inc. (formerly Groupe Aeroplan Inc.).

Examples of companies that run their own programs include HBC Rewards, which started in Zellers in 1986 as Club Z; PC Plus programs for free shopping (from Loblaws), The Body Shop's Love Your Body Card, Shoppers Shoppers Optimum Shopping Card, Staples Business Depot EasyRewards (formerly Dividend) and Sobeys Club Sobeys card. The plum reward program is Canada's largest loyalty program for reading fans, offering daily discounts and special coupons in Chapters, Indigo Books and Music, Coles, SmithBooks, and bab.indigo.ca. PetPerks is a PetSmart reward program, where members get a predetermined discount on any item in the store that displays the PetPerks tag beneath the regular price tag. Vicinity is a loyalty platform for small business retailers launched in May 2013 by Rogers Communications Inc.

Almost every gas station network in Canada offers a kind of loyalty program itself or in partnership. For example, Air Miles at Shell's Gas Station, PC Plus at Esso and Car, Petro Points, and Other Benefits in Petro-Canada, Canadian Tire money at Canadian Tire gas stations or coupons that give customers 3.5 cents per liter of fuel purchased at the location of Sobeys Fast Fuel that can be used in the Sobeys banner store.

United States

In the US, some large supermarkets and fish market chains, and three major pharmaceutical chains, require cards to allow customers to receive advertised fidelity pricing. They include Kroger and Safeway (both each via their own names and related regional chains), Target, Best Buy, Sears (also used by Kmart), County Market, Hallmark, Office Max, Kohl's, Toys "R" Us used by our "R" infants), JCPenney, IKEA, Menards, Winn-Dixie, Hy-Vee, Ingles, Giant Eagle, Tops, Chopper Price, ShopRite, Wegmans, Stop & amp; Stores and sister chains Giant-Carlisle and Giant-Landover, Regal Entertainment Group, AMC Theater, Circle K, Rite Aid, Walgreens, and CVS/pharmacies. Many retailers allow accumulated fuel discounts. Some have close links with airline frequent flyer programs, and some agree to contribute a percentage of sales to a designated charity. Most notably, Walmart does not have a loyalty card plan even though anyone who buys a gift card can generally get a discount of 3 cents per gallon of gas at a fuel station located at Walmart (in only 23 states with Walmart fuel station).

This practice is common among book and music retailers, from large chains to independent retailers. In some cases, a customer purchases a card and receives a percentage discount on all purchases for a certain period of time (often one year), while in other cases, the customer receives a one-time percentage discount once it reaches a specified purchase level. (For example, a book dealer loyalty card program may provide customers with a 10% discount coupon after the customer spends $ 200 on booksellers.) Best Buy and Sears offers a loyalty program that offers redeemable points at a discount on the dollar amount after collecting a set of points with them other discounts from time to time.

Independent hardware stores like Ace Hardware and True Value add customer loyalty programs to compete more effectively with larger chains and collect customer data. Customers with associations with a particular brand feel the benefits of being part of the program. The Ace program also offers customers a way at the time of purchase to get goods at prices that usually have to complete mail-in rebates. In addition, Staples and Office Depot office supplies retailers began issuing club cards in 2005: they offered prizes in the form of credit for future purchases on store-bought or online items (items and how many credit changes periodically).

Nearly all major hotel chains (Best Western, Choice Hotels, Holiday Inn, Marriott, Super 8 Motels, etc.) Have cards that allow guests to earn points (redeemable for discounts, stays or other gifts) or airline miles ( The Hilton HHonors program allows guests to earn points and miles (referred to as double-immersion) during the same period of stay, the only program to date to do so but will expire April 1, 2018). All major US airlines also offer award credit cards. Other travel rewards programs include SeaMiles, with points that can be redeemed for cruises.

Some American retailers have not yet applied club cards, including Whole Foods grocery stores, Publix, and ALDI. Between 2007 and 2013 (prior to the purchase of Safeway), Albertsons, Shaw, Acme Markets and Jewel-Osco (all owned by Albertsons LLC) abolished their loyalty cards for discounts for all buyers.

Max & amp; Erma's has a loyalty program called Good Neighbor Rewards . Customers are rewarded based on the number of visits they are either 5%, 10%, or 15% and are regularly awarded additional prizes by means of free items added to their loyalty cards electronically.

Truck stop chain Travel Centers' Pilot Program Payback Points drivers reward truck drivers to refuel by giving them points that can be used for in-store purchases. Although it can be used for general merchandise, the program is specifically targeted to be redeemed at restaurant chains located within each location.

Some countries manage club cards. For example, supermarkets in California are subject to the 1999 Supermarket Club Card Disclosure Act.

Popular online loyalty programs include MonaBar, Memolink, Mypoints, FatWallet, Fivestars, Perka, Belly, and Swagbucks. Some online loyalty programs focus on other "directed" consumers including Upromise, Schoolpop, The BSP Rewards Network and iGive.com.

Some banks have gift programs, including three Big Four banks in the United States - Wells Fargo being the single exception.

Membership of a warehouse club (such as Costco and Sam's Club) is in some ways similar to a reward program. All warehouse clubs have a premium version of their membership, with benefits over basic membership.

Amazon has their Prime program, giving members of this program an exclusive range of benefits to these members.

Macy's has a reward version of their credit card, called "Star Rewards".

Foursquare, Cardmobili, and Shopkick focus on using smart phones like Android and iPhone. Since March 2011, Foursquare has partnered with American Express to provide Foursquare points when using American Express cards, and since November 21, 2011, Shopkick has partnered with Visa to provide Shopkick points when using Visa cards at locations such as Best Buy, Toys "R" Us or Old Navy.

Oceania

Australia

Many loyalty programs operate in Australia, ranging from retail chains, individual stores, hotels, car rental businesses, credit card schemes, in addition to others. The biggest loyalty program is flybuys, founded in 1994 and owned by Coles. It has more than 10 million cardholders in more than 5.5 million Australian households. A consumer study of Australia's loyalty program in 2013 shows flybuys as the most popular program in Australia. Woolworths retailer rival launched the Everyday Rewards nationwide discount card in 2009 and in August 2010 had 5.1 million cardholders, with 2.7 million linked to the Qantas Frequent Flyer program.

Among other Australian retailers, the largest programs are Myer's MYER one department store program, Priceline Club Card (health, beauty, home), Amcal Club (pharmaceutical), Millers Retail Club (clothing), and BB Retail Capital (formerly Brazin Limited ) Pulse Award Program (Virgin, HMV, Sanity, Twilight, Bras n Things, and SX Sunglasses). Pulsa has more than one million members.

All major Australian banks offer credit cards with reward programs. Many are directly connected with airline rewards programs such as the Qantas Frequent Flyer program or Virgin Frequent Frequent Flyer Virgin Australia program. Or, some banks and credit card companies have their own programs, with points that can be redeemed or transferred to various airline rewards programs.

New Zealand

The largest loyalty program in New Zealand is Direct Purchases. Other important programs include the New Zealand Automobile Association's Smartfuel Association and Countdown supermarket's Onecard.

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Program management

Throughout the loyalty program the world increasingly finds the need to outsource the strategic and operational aspects of their programs, given the size and complexity of the loyalty program. Program managers are typically agents with expert specialists in loyalty, creativity, communication, data analytics, software loyalty, and back end operations. The emergence of web 2.0 and SaaS-based web services has provided a lower cost option for small businesses to offer and manage their own loyalty programs. In addition, many free and open source alternatives are available to manage user rewards and incentives.

Mobile loyalty cards (eg Cardmobili, Loopt, and Nokadi).

The state of loyalty in the United States is changing rapidly. Brands try to establish a direct relationship with their customers.

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Mobile online fidelity program

Some are switching from traditional magnetic card schemes, stamps, or punchcards to online and mobile loyalty programs. While this scheme varies, the common element is the impetus towards traditional card eradication, supporting electronic equivalents. The choice of media is often a QR code. Some notable examples are the 2009 Austrian mobile-pocket este, the US-based Punchd (discontinued from June 2013), which became part of Google in 2011. as well as an Australian-based loyalty card application called Stamp Me that incorporates iBeacon technology. Others, such as Perka (USA), Loyalli (UK), QR Loyalty Card (CA), and Loopy Loyalty (HK) have offered similar programs. Passbook by Apple is the first attempt to standardize the mobile loyalty card format.

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Mobile off-line loyalty program

With the introduction of host card emulation (HCE) and near field communication technology (NFC) for mobile applications, traditional contactless smart cards for prepaid and loyalty programs are emulated on smartphones. Google Wallet adopts this technology for off-line mobile payment applications.

The main advantage off-line through the on-line system is that the user's smartphone does not have to be online, and the transaction is fast. In addition, some emulated cards can be stored in smartphones to support multi-merchant loyalty programs. Users do not need to carry many more physical cards.

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Loyalty card

In three cities, several independent coffeehouses have set up an 'unfaithful card' experimental program, which rewards customers for visiting various coffee shops.

src: thebestinaz.com

Criticism

Some companies complain that loyalty programs reduce goods to people who buy their goods, and the cost of participation in these programs rarely generates a good return on investment. Some other critics consider discounted prices and rewards for bribes to manipulate customer loyalty and purchase decisions, or in the case of sparse shopper, how to subsidize them.

On the other hand, a study by 2015 states that most supermarket loyalty cards in the US do not offer real value to their customers. In fact, commercial use of customer's personal data collected as part of a loyalty program has potential abuse; it is likely that consumer purchases are tracked and used for marketing research to improve marketing and advertising efficiency, which is often one of the goals of loyalty cards. For some customers, participating in a loyalty program (even with a fake or anonymous card) is funding an activity that violates your privacy. There are also concerns about RFID technology being introduced to loyalty cards.

Loyalty and credit card reward packages may be seen as a modern example of a reward. Employees who need to buy something (such as a hotel room or flight) for business travel, but who have the discretion to decide which airline or hotel chain to use, have an incentive to choose a payment method that provides the most credit card rewards, loyalty points, or money back, instead of minimizing costs for the organization.