Loyalty Program

What is a loyalty program?

The loyalty program is a set of marketing strategies that encourage customers to buy products/services from a certain company. The sellers create those programs to offer to their clients. These programs are typical for most eCommerce types and travel industries. Loyalty programs use different reward schemes.

Loyalty programs expose themselves in different forms. Customers may use their loyalty number during online purchasing. Another option is a physical card. By the way, this card will be alike to the payment card. It usually has the name of the merchant, magnetic stripe, and a number (or client’s name). Customers present loyalty program cards at the reception desks or, for instance, in stores.

As we’ve mentioned, loyalty programs use different reward schemes. The most widespread is the discount option. Reward card owners are eligible for a discount that may vary depending on the card type. Another example is a bonus card. In this case, customers accumulate bonuses and may change them for goods/services.

The travel industry offers a broad selection of schemes as well. So, the users may file for a loyalty card to save flying miles, the number of nights spent in hotels, etc. Later, the client may use the card to pay lesser for a service, to make an upgrade (e.g. for the room), or get a special offer.

The example of loyalty programs are:

• HHonors by Hilton Hotels,
• KrisFlyer by Singapore Airlines,
• Miles&Smiles by Turkish Airlines.

Nevertheless, customers can benefit from loyalty programs when they use certain payment cards. Moreover, many banks/card networks partner with popular stores, hotels, airlines to the customers’ extra value. There are special websites that compare credit/debit cards in terms of their loyalty/rewards programs. So, the customer can pick the card and the bank, depending on what services he/she uses the most.

The example of cards’ loyalty programs:

• Lady’s Card by UOB,
• Premier Mastercard reward program by HSBC.