Consumers are drawn to shopping experiences that foster relationships and provide value beyond the purchase. Today’s most successful brand relationships gain traction at every touchpoint throughout the customer journey. Payment and rewards programs can help to seamlessly and instinctively strengthen the bond between the consumer and the brand to create what every merchant seeks: loyalty.
Case studies in success
ZipLine studied several national convenience store chains with distinct brands and specialties, analyzing the behavior of more than 122,000 enrolled program members over a 12-month period across 1,350 store locations. Whether the chain’s focus was fresh food or fast fuel, they all shared one thing in common: when they implemented a combined private label debit and loyalty program, they enjoyed greater enrollment, more participation and higher sales than with their previous iterations of payment or loyalty alone.
Building revenue in stages
One 70-store chain offered a payment program without traditional loyalty elements for several years. Upon launching the program, this retailer saw a 33% purchase lift across 350,000 additional transactions and 2.9 million gallons of fuel. In-store team members contributed to the success of this launch by acting as program advocates, which encouraged well-distributed adoption across all stores.
Building on the success of their payment program, the chain launched its loyalty program a few years later, increasing monthly enrollment in the payment program by 68%. After the first month of participation, customers increased their program usage by 30%, providing even greater lift in overall sales for the chain.
Generating excitement with refreshed marketing
In another success story, a 180-store chain with locations throughout the mid-Atlantic nearly doubled its projected transactions per store per month by going to market with a combined private label debit and loyalty program.
Leveraging ZipLine’s consumer engagement team, the chain executed a comprehensive marketing strategy that included weekly email segmentation campaigns, paid digital advertising and point-of-purchase materials. All program messaging consistently highlighted the distinct and meaningful benefits of seamlessly combined payment and rewards.
By successfully communicating the one-swipe ease of the program, this brand increased monthly enrollment in the payment program by 110%, and customers increased their program usage, resulting in 22% more transactions per member to date.
Relationship building is everything
Consumers expect quick, simple and rewarding purchasing experiences and will shop where they find them. Payment-forward loyalty programs that seamlessly combine private label debit and rewards are becoming part of that expectation. And they’re a proven way to help build the relationships necessary to capture the loyalty of today’s consumers. In the end, merchants who fail to take advantage of the relationship-building opportunities provided by the current payment and rewards trend may soon be left behind.
For a more detailed look at the case study data and to get a how-to guide on implementing a successful loyalty program, sign up here to receive ZipLine’s latest white paper.
This post is sponsored by ZipLine