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Loyalty Newswire - July 29, 2019

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on July 29, 2019

This week’s loyalty newswire leads off with a double-shot of coffee; there are some very interesting statistics coming in from the world of consumer psychology; data privacy and notifications are about to get a lot more complicated; Aldi goes against the loyalty grain and Amazon reaches a new level of … dessert.  Here is what we’re following in loyalty news:

STARBUCKS

Starbucks Rewards Now Counts 17.2M Active Members

Quotable: “These changes have been very well-received by customers,” Johnson noted, as growth of the company’s 90-day active rewards members accelerated. The program reached 17.2 million active members, and loyalty members accounted for 42 percent of U.S. tender.”

Starbucks Traffic Gets a Boost from Customers who Aren’t Loyalty Members

Quotable: “We know a lot more about our customers now and it’s really fueling what we have in the pipeline for beverage innovation as well as when we need to be ready for those customers at store level,” said Rosalind Brewer, Starbucks’ chief operating officer.”

CONSUMER PSYCHOLOGY

The Curious Case of the Loyalty Points Industry

Quotable: “The new-age customer treats the points as personally earned and expects to use them as cash that can be redeemed wherever desired.”

How Much Does Free Shipping Influence Cart Abandonment?

Quotable: “Fully 84% of global respondents indicated that they had made an online purchase from a retailer specifically because of a free shipping offer. Half of respondents said they will not even shop with a retailer unless free shipping is available, while 24% of respondents said they would only pay for shipping if there were no other option.”

Just 1 Bad Experience can Turn Off a Shopper

Quotable: “Nearly a third of shoppers, 29%, stated shopping is not as fun as it once was and 36% believe that while convenience has improved the customer experience has diminished.”

LOYALTY STRATEGY

Why Subjective Marketing Decisions Can Lead To A Poor Customer Experience

Quotable: “It is often the “HiPPO” — the Highest Paid Person’s Opinion — that ends up driving the test plan, if they allow testing at all. Often, HiPPOs simply rely on their instinct and years of experience to make key creative decisions. In contrast, more enlightened leaders are starting to respond with, “It doesn’t matter what I think. What matters is what the customer thinks.”

Is Data a Common Language in Your Organisation?

Quotable: “Harvard Business Review has defined the ‘experience economy’ as the situation where “a company intentionally uses services as the stage, and goods as props, to engage individual customers in a way that creates a memorable event”. Consumers are no longer satisfied with an impersonal transaction; they seek and often expect the brands they use to listen and deliver an entire experience – not just the goods and services.”

DATA PRIVACY

New York City Considers Banning the Sale of Mobile Location Data

Quotable: “Meanwhile, a survey by Ipsos Mori on behalf of the Internet Society and Consumers International conducted in the US, Canada, Japan, Australia, France and the UK, found that two thirds of consumers think connected devices are "creepy" in the way they collect data about people and their behaviours and more than half (55 per cent) do not trust their connected devices to protect their privacy. More than half (53 per cent) also do not trust connected devices to handle their information responsibly.”

MOBILE

Mobile Is The ‘Digital Glue’ For Retailers

Quotable: “In Australia, 68 per cent of online traffic comes from mobile devices and 54 per cent of transactions are now completed on mobile devices in a digital context. That could climb as high as 76 per cent by the end of 2019. Johnson commented on the data, “This is an average obviously, we see much higher for some of our customers, particularly around peak times. “But the trend is really clear, mobile is the glue is linking this journey together and is absolutely key to that foundational element of that experience.”

FINTECH

The Next Fintech Wave in Latin America Will Focus on B2B

Quotable: “An estimated 70% of consumers in Latin America are unbanked or underbanked, having been excluded from traditional financial services because they could not provide the appropriate documents or information to open an account or obtain credit.”

HOSPITALITY

Sleep Quality Leads to Hospitality Loyalty

Quotable: “71 percent of guests who get a better than expected night’s sleep would stay again with the same brand. While luxury hotel brands often emphasize factors such as on-property amenities and service, setting guests up for a restful night can have one of the greatest impacts on their attitudes.”

GROCERY

Aldi Rules Out Collectibles, Loyalty Programs

Quotable: “Unlike Woolworths and Coles, none of Aldi's loyal shoppers carry cards proving their fealty, nor collect any points or perks. The company has been staunchly against loyalty programs, labelling them "schemes" and "manipulative" in the past.  While Mr. Christie said Aldi wasn't completely opposed to a loyalty or rewards program, he said introducing one would involve costs, which the retailer would prefer to avoid.  “If we’re looking at managing large volumes of data and manipulating that data to sell to our customers, that’s a cost,” he said.”

AMAZON

Husband Surprises Wife with A Birthday Cake That Looks Exactly Like an Amazon Package

Enough Said.

The Loyalty Newswire is compiled and edited each week by the staff at The Wise Marketer.