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Data for this episode of Truth In Data is provided by Mercator Advisory Group’s report Gamification and Other Strategies for Merchants to Enhance Customer Loyalty.
- High: QSRs, Fast Casual and Cinemas. The sweet spot combines payment, mobile ordering, loyalty, and personalized marketing.
- Starbucks is the gold standard, with 40% of transactions in-program. Others, like McDonalds or Panera, haven’t integrated in-app payment, and therefore suffer.
- Medium: C-Stores & Gas Stations. 80% of U.S. gas is sold from c-stores, creating a high volume opportunity. Card programs are turning towards apps, and decoupled debit schemes are emerging.
- Medium: Travel & Airline. Once groundbreaking, these loyalty programs have matured to the point of confusion.
- Low: Department Stores & Retail. These are suffering from only weekly or monthly visits; formerly had store cards until premium credit cards took the market.
- Low: Grocery & Pharmacy. Basic loyalty programs to capture sales are turning towards a membership-fee-based subscription model.
About this report
Most studies find that merchants spend at least five times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one. Further, higher customer retention typically leads to greater business profits. A new research report from Mercator Advisory Group, Gamification and Other Strategies for Merchants to Enhance Customer Loyalty, assesses different types of customer loyalty programs across various retail verticals and discusses key success factors for merchants to act upon.