Its a busy week in customer loyalty. Here's what we're tracking:
Wyndham Grand asks guests: Can You Put Down Your Phone for the sake of vacation? Wyndham Grand is creating new VIP areas at its pools and restaurants with perks promoting quality time for guests at five of its hotels. The catch? You can't check your phone.
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Marriott International announced rapid expansion plans across Africa. Strong demand for select-service brands and conversion opportunities are driving the momentum of growth for the company, amplified by five new hotel signings. They’re expecting a 50% increase in the size of their Africa portfolio.
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Walmart's Savings Catcher app will soon require mobile payment. The Saving Catcher app compares prices at rival stores and offers cash back for the difference. The discount chain said it doesn't expect the Walmart Pay requirement to negatively affect usage of the app, given its popularity and repeat usage rate.
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Study: Use of grocery apps to increase 50% this year. Next year, more than one in five adults will use a grocery app to order food at least once a month, according to a new forecast from eMarketer. That will equate to nearly 23 million people, up from 18 million grocery app users this year. More than 30 million adults may use an app to order groceries by 2022.
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Uncertain rewards motivate consumers to make repeat purchases. While conventional wisdom says that people don't like uncertain gains or rewards, a study from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business finds that uncertainty can play an important role in motivating repeat behaviors.
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Loblaw Grocery Chain Beats Canadian Banks in Credit-Card Survey. Loblaw Cos.’s President’s Choice Financial credit cards rank No. 1 for customer satisfaction, beating out cards issued by the country’s biggest banks, according to a study published Monday by J.D. Power. Despite being Canada’s biggest credit-card issuer, Toronto-Dominion Bank trails the pack.
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Will Air Canada purchase of Aeroplan bring friendly skies or turbulent times to customers? A new study from the Angus Reid Institute, conducted after Air Canada announced it would purchase Aeroplan and merge members of that program into a new, in house rewards system, finds that six-in-ten members are concerned that they will lose value from the points they have saved under the current loyalty program. Half also say they fear that some of their points will be lost outright because of this sale.
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Chevron Relaunches aFANity Rewards Program - a sports-themed rewards program available to residents of Alabama, Arizona, California, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. Eligible consumers can sign up as members to begin earning points by visiting www.afanity.com.
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Yesway Drives 44% Redemption Rate Among Rewards Members Who Visit C-Stores. The 150-store convenience retailer Yesway has ambitious plans to acquire, improve and rebrand as many as 500 additional stores over the next few years. Even before this expansion occurs, however, the retailer is solidifying its business with an intense focus on customer loyalty.
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Groupon Adds Frontier Airlines FRONTIER Miles℠ to Loyalty Program. According to their release, “Through one straightforward integration with Points’ Loyalty Commerce Platform, Groupon has gained managed transactional access to industry leading loyalty programs. Points service enables Groupon to leverage loyalty platforms as a tool to drive increased engagement and new member acquisition.”
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KPMG develops “First Blockchain-Based Airline Loyalty Programme ‘Digital Wallet’”. KPMG has worked with Singapore Airlines (SIA) and Microsoft to develop what it claims is the first such program. With KrisPay, SIA's KrisFlyer members can instantly convert KrisFlyer miles into KrisPay tokens that can be spent with participating merchants.
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It just got 25 percent more expensive to earn top-tier elite status on United Airlines, according to Skift,. For the 2019 travel year, United’s spend (or qualifying dollar) requirement for earning top-tier 1K elite status is moving from $12,000 to $15,000 annually, a 25 percent increase. Flown miles, the other requirement for earning 1K status, is remaining the same at 100,000 annually.
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Hackers are selling Alaska Air, other airline miles for cheap on the dark web. Hackers are using various forms of digital skullduggery to steal frequent flyer miles from customers of Delta, Alaska and other airlines. The thieves then resell the miles on the dark web. Tech writer Paul Bischoff discovered that piles of Alaska Airlines miles could be bought in exchange for bitcoin or another difficult-to-trace cryptocurrency called Monero. Hackers most commonly listed Delta SkyMiles and British Airways points.
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Survey: Passenger Loyalty for Airlines is Driven by Wi-Fi Connectivity. The Inflight Connectivity Survey is in its fourth year and is published by the global mobile satellite communications provider, Inmarsat, and market research company Populus. Seventy-eight percent of respondents noted that Wi-Fi was “fundamental” to their lives and 55 percent agreed that the connectivity on the ground was as crucial in the skies, and key to improving passenger experience and driving passenger loyalty to an airline provider.
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Asos tests customer loyalty as axe falls on rewards scheme. Scrapping a programme so evidently popular with a key customer group, barely two years after launching it, might look like a rare error from a company that has barely put a foot wrong on its 14-year journey from a penny stock to a £5bn giant – but analysts say otherwise.
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MVC Technologies Acquires Consumer Engagement and Loyalty Platform for Cannabis Retailers. MVC Technologies Inc., a leading cannabis-focused technology and services company, today announced that it has acquired customer loyalty, retention and engagement platform, TokeIn. TokeIn enables dispensaries and other cannabis retailers to engage with their customers with the industry’s only mobile app-based platform. The acquisition was completed earlier this month.
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Salesforce Invests In Narvar For Loyalty Management Tech. San Francisco, California-based Narvar was founded in 2012 to leverage machine learning algorithms and help retailers improve long-term customer loyalty at all post-purchase stages. The platform offers order tracking, communications, and returns.
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Augeo Sells Financial Institution Loyalty Business Unit for $140 Million. Augeo announced that it has completed the sale of its financial institution loyalty business unit to investment funds affiliated with Lightyear Capital LLC. A leader in customer, member and employee engagement solutions, Augeo serves more than 300 clients outside of financial institution loyalty.
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ClanPlay raises $2 million for blockchain-based gamer rewards platform. The Tel Aviv, Israel-based startup is using the Aion blockchain and cryptocurrency technology to create a reward system where gamers can essentially be paid for completing actions in a mobile game.
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And lastly, the first ever Blockchain Loyalty conference happens this coming October 16-18 in Chicago. The Wise Marketer has been given a coupon code for 50% off. Get details on LoyaltyLive here.
