Here's what we're following: Rakuten customers can buy Crypto with loyalty points, Love's enters into a new partnership, a review of Red Roof Inn's new loyalty program, data provenance in 2020, Brazil barely gives Facebook a slap on the wrist for data privacy violation, a review of retail bankruptcies in 2019, Ulta outperforms Amazon, China Southern leaves SkyTeam Alliance, and a surprising win for consumers over cable companies.
Read last week's newswire here if you missed it!
Loyalty Program News
Rakuten Customers Can Use Their Loyalty Program Points to Buy Crypto
Quotable: “According to an official announcement on Dec. 24, this capability is immediately available for Rakuten users in Japan who have an account with Rakuten Wallet, a crypto exchange subsidiary of Rakuten. The company says its clients can convert their loyalty points to three different cryptocurrencies, including Bitcoin, Ether (ETH), and Bitcoin Cash (BCH).”
Love’s Partners With International Used Truck Centers
Quotable: “Customers who make a qualifying International truck purchase from International Used Truck Centers will receive six months of My Love Rewards Diamond status and several other benefits for free. “My Love Rewards is one of the best programs available to professional drivers. Through International’s partnership with Love’s, we’re excited to extend the benefits of My Love Rewards to our International Used Truck Center customers even further,” said Justina Morosin, VP of Used Truck Sales at Navistar.”
6 Things You May Not Know About Red Roof’s Rewards Program
Quotable: “Red Roof recently rebranded its RediCard loyalty program. The Red Roof brand includes Red Roof Inn, Red Roof Plus, The Red Collection and HomeTowne Studios by Red Roof. Here are six things you may not know about Red Roof’s new rewards program.”
Data & Privacy News
Why ‘data provenance’ will be the new media-transparency issue in 2020
Quotable: “Dodgy data is a fact of life in advertising. Hundreds of millions of dollars are spent on location data and yet up to 80% of it could be fake. Transparency, for the most part, has meant getting agencies to pay media rebates and kickbacks to advertisers and not much more. That’s about to change. 2020 stands to bring a spotlight to data provenance, the catchall term for knowing whether data used for targeting is a dud.”
Brazil fines Facebook $1.6 million for improper sharing of user data
Quotable: “Brazil’s Ministry of Justice said on Monday it has fined U.S. tech giant Facebook Inc 6.6 million reais ($1.6 million) for improperly sharing user data. The ministry’s department of consumer protection said it had found that data from 443,000 Facebook users was made improperly available to developers of an App called ‘thisisyourdigitallife.’”
Retail News
The bankruptcies that rocked the retail industry in 2019
Quotable: “While some retailers filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection for the first time this year, others went through a so-called Chapter 22 scenario, where it was their second time in bankruptcy court. That included Z Gallerie and Charming Charlie. And some retailers, like discount chain Fred’s, ended up liquidating.”
Business News
Ulta Tops Amazon as Decade’s Best Performing Large Retail Stock
Quotable: “Ulta Beauty Inc. is on pace to close out the decade as the top performing stock in the S&P 500 Retailing Index, beating out Amazon.com Inc. Since Dec. 31, 2009, Ulta shares have climbed 1,271% compared to Amazon’s advance of 1,236%. The S&P 500 has grown 189% for the same period, outperforming just eight of 26 large-cap retail index members.”
Airline News
China Southern Airlines Leaving SkyTeam Alliance in 2020
Quotable: “In addition, China Southern is working on a new loyalty program that will fill in some of the gaps left by its exit from SkyTeam once it is launched. SkyTeam has set up a dedicated page that you can refer to regarding questions you may have as to how your tickets may be impacted.”
Legal News
Shockingly, Congress passed a law banning one of the cable industry’s most despised practices
Quotable: “To get a sense of all the extra costs that get added to your bill, cable companies routinely charge fees for routers and cable modems, all sorts of administrative and convenience fees, regional sports fees, installation fees, and more — all of which are legal. President Trump signed this legislation into law in recent days, and it’s set to go into effect in six months providing the Federal Communications Commission doesn’t intervene.”
The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited by the staff at The Wise Marketer.
