Happy Holidays and welcome back to the Wise Marketer! As usual, here's the team's curated list of the latest customer loyalty and marketing news. Our goal is to make it easy and simple for busy loyalty professionals to stay up to date with essential news and trending topics. If you enjoy our content and want to show your support, subscribe to our newsletter for exclusive content, events and more!
- Scotiabank and Cineplex join forces to combine the benefits of the SCENE loyalty program with Scotia Rewards
- Bond Brand Loyalty recently announced a new partnership with Uber to facilitate last-mile, on-demand delivery of rewards to loyalty program members via Uber's new service, Direct
- Tap Network raises $4 million to develop rewards program that enables members to redeem from a boarder network of rewards at a lower point level
- New data from Collinson finds gifts for family and friends plus self-care products among leading holiday purchases
- Barron's predicts retailers that have "suffered the most and are expected to rebound significantly next year"
- An Indian court rules in Amazon's favor to halt Future Group's $3.4 billion sale to Reliance Industries
- The presence of AI and robotics in retail aims to increase productivity through automation
- Samsung Pay users will no longer earn Samsung Rewards points for conducting transactions, but the program itself remains
- As California voters approve the CPRA, it increasingly limits how companies can use personal data as rules start to resemble the EU's GDPR
- Apple's causing a stir at Facebook as Apple plans to require app users to choose to opt in to data collection which could result in reduced advertising revenue for Facebook
- The UK Logistics sector faces major cybersecurity threats as criminals target critical supply chains
- Jetblue announces upcoming updates to its TrueBlue loyalty program in 2021
- Mandarin Oriental and Oberoi form long-term partnership to focus on creating a better guest experience which includes additional perks for loyalty members
LOYALTY PROGRAM NEWS:
Scotiabank and Cineplex Announce Enhancements to the SCENE Loyalty Program
Quotable: “While further details on the expanded program will be shared in the coming months, this agreement between Scotiabank and Cineplex better positions one of Canada's leading entertainment and lifestyle loyalty programs for future expansion by growing its customer base, and providing opportunities for additional reward options. It will also build off the existing brand loyalty that SCENE has built over the last 13 years and the strong membership engagement and satisfaction it continues to generate today.”
Bond and Uber Partner to Solve the Last Mile of Customer Loyalty
Quotable: “Just in time for the holiday season, Bond Brand Loyalty announced a new partnership with Uber to bring last-mile, on-demand delivery of rewards to loyalty program members. The new service, Direct, represents a step change in the reward redemption experience. It’s a real-time delivery solution that reduces fulfillment to hours versus days.”
Tap Network raises $4M for its customizable rewards program
Quotable: “Dai said that normal rewards programs are only accessible to the top 10% or 20% of a company’s customers. So in his view, businesses have an opportunity to “super serve the average customers who 40 years ago might not have been considered important customers, but who today could be building a loyalty behavior pattern.”
Gifts and Self-Care Among Leading Purchases for Loyalty Program Shoppers in This Year’s Unusual Run-Up to Christmas
Quotable: “Black Friday loyalty program shoppers in 2020 spent significantly more than in previous years on items to show their love and appreciation for friends, family and themselves. At the same time, spending on traditional Black Friday categories like electronics and appliances, and luxury, fell. November 2020 also saw rising traveler confidence, with consumers booking trips over three months in advance.”
RETAIL NEWS:
Indian court rejects retail giant Future Group's plea against Amazon
Quotable: “An Indian court rejected Future Group's plea that sought to prevent its partner Amazon from interfering in -- and blocking -- the Indian retail giant's $3.4 billion asset sale deal to Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries, delivering a glimmer of hope to the American e-commerce firm that has invested more than $6.5 billion in the world’s second largest internet market.”
Seven Retail Laggards With Big Earnings Potential
Quotable: “The year is nearly over, although many investors have long been looking ahead to 2021. That’s certainly true of the retail industry that has been turned upside down by the pandemic. With this in mind, Barron’s found the retailers that have suffered the most and are expected to rebound significantly next year. Using FactSet data, we ranked retail companies with a market valuation of more than $2 billion by worst year-to-date total return performance through Friday’s close. We then ranked that set of companies by year-over-year estimated earnings per share growth in the year ahead.”
Robots are picking up more retail jobs, but not every experiment works out
Quotable: “From inventory to checkout, the latest advances in robotics, artificial intelligence and machine learning have been put to work throughout most of the retail ecosystem already. And their presence is expected to grow: By 2025, more than 150,000 mobile robots could be deployed in brick-and-mortar establishments, according to a report from ABI Research, based in Oyster Bay, N.Y. By the same year, more than 4 million robots could be installed in 50,000 warehouses.”
PAYMENTS NEWS:
Samsung Pay is losing its rewards program at the end of the year
Quotable: “After the end of the year, Samsung Pay will no longer earn points toward Samsung's rewards program. While purchases at Samsung storefronts like the company's website and the Galaxy Store still earn points for Samsung Rewards, when the calendar flips over to 2021 at the end of the year, you won't be able to earn them anymore through Samsung Pay.”
DATA & PRIVACY NEWS:
California voters approved a new and even tougher data privacy act. What happens now?
Quotable: “On November 3, California citizens approved the California Privacy Rights and Enforcement Act (the CPRA), a comprehensive privacy law that amends and expands another privacy law that had just gone into effect in the state on January 1, 2020, called the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). Among the most important provisions, the CPRA creates new, more stringent requirements for companies that collect and share sensitive personal information and creates the California Privacy Protection Agency, a new agency that will be responsible for enforcing CPRA violations with the aid of the state's Attorney General.”
Apple and Facebook's Fight Over Your Data Privacy
Quotable: “Facebook grew to be one of the world’s largest companies by gathering up large quantities of personal data and auctioning them off to advertisers. Now that Apple is posing a threat to that business, Facebook has embarked on a quixotic marketing campaign against its rival that it says is really about saving small businesses. Apple, maker of the iPhone, has drawn Facebook’s ire over a plan to require app users to choose to opt in to the kind of data collection and tracking that can produce creepily specific ads, known as targeted advertising. Apple plans to apply the change early next year, which is likely to result in fewer dollars flowing to companies like Facebook.”
UK Logistics Sector Faces Major Threats
Quotable: “Last month’s report by IBM’s ‘threat intelligence taskforce’ highlighted how hackers ‘probably backed by a nation state’ appeared to be trying to disrupt or steal information about the key processes to keep the newly approved Covid vaccines cold as they travel from factories to hospitals and doctors’ offices. 'The potential for disruption of supply chains is enormous” said Garbett and, “until recently, logistics organisations have felt they have been relatively safe… but the stakes are getting higher as the need for more sophisticated logistics services, such as unmanned (drone) conveyance is increasingly in demand.'”
TRAVEL & HOSPITALITY NEWS:
JetBlue’s TrueBlue Loyalty Program Becomes More Rewarding in 2021
Quotable: “JetBlue today announced updates to its TrueBlue program to support its loyal customers as they start to think about travel again. The TrueBlue program will be more rewarding in 2021. Mosaics members will receive free unlimited companion passes for a select time, complimentary Even More Space® seats at the airport (pending availability) and enhanced benefits. Additionally JetBlue is extending a limited time offer through January 31, 2021 for customers signing up for the JetBlue Plus Card to earn 100,000 bonus points.”
What Mandarin Oriental and Oberoi's New Partnership Means for Travelers
Quotable: “The long-term partnership covers nearly every facet of a hotel stay, from perks for guests and food and beverage experiences, to spas and even employee trainings. Instead of blending or merging their iconic legacies, the two Asia-based hotel brands are upping their game together. 'Our brands complement each other extremely well, as do our organizations' values and culture,' says Vikram Oberoi, CEO of the Oberoi Group.”
Read last week's newswire if you missed it: Loyalty Newswire – December 14th, 2020
The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited by the staff at The Wise Marketer.
