StoriesBlogBest practicesHow to run a successful loyalty program

How to run a successful loyalty program

June 10, 2022

The loyalty program is one of the core functions of the consumer app. It encompasses points, actions and rewards and it is the main driver for the gamification of the shopping experience. With it, customers get rewarded for actions like visiting the shopping centre, which makes them excited and keeps them coming back again and again.

In this article, we’ll take you through our best practice recommendations when it comes to everything from frequency to types and pricing.

If you’re interested in some real-life examples of rewards, click here.

A reward in Rosengaardcentret where customers can spend 10 points on entering a competition to win a gift card
A reward in the Tvoj Centar app that customers can redeem to get 10% off their next purchase at The Body Shop

Frequency

It is important to keep your loyalty program exciting for your customers. To do this, it is necessary to regularly add new prizes. This sparks customers interest and provides you with an opportunity to market your app and send out push notifications.

While you can update with new prizes whenever, as long as it is regularly. However, some shopping centres also prefer to go with set intervals like rewards of the month.


Amount

As a rule of thumb, we recommend that there’s always 5-10 prizes in the loyalty program for customers to redeem.


Types

It is important that the rewards available in the loyalty program are not all the same. While there are some hot ticket items that are popular with most (like a beverage or a gift card), it’s important to spread the selection out a bit so that the rewards are interesting and relevant to as many people as possible.


It is also a good idea to have a nice variation of rewards at different prize points. Generally speaking, small prizes (20-50 points) create quick value, while large rewards create “stickiness” (100+ points).

A small snack at a low cost, creating quick value

A gift card at a higher cost, creating “stickiness”

Pricing

Priced in the loyalty program are prized by a point system. Generally speaking, you want your rewards to span between 20-500 points to motivate downloads and retention rate.

When pricing, it is important to keep in mind how many visits a customer should have to make to earn the reward - is it 5 or 50?

Usually, more attainable rewards help motivate customers to visit often as they feel they have an easier time reaching their goal and in turn, more interested in finding a new goal when they’ve reached it, as it seems more attainable (that being said, big ticket item also adds excitement and something for the top most active customers to strive towards).

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