As the success of traditional store loyalty reward programs seep into the mobile app ecosystem, what lessons can be gleaned? How can developers create mobile user loyalty reward programs that position themselves effectively above the noise of other similar programs? Examining the data in eMarketer’s latest report Loyalty Marketing: Creating Stickiness in a Distracted World reveals a few key insights.
First, while users may be enrolling in an ever-increasing number of loyalty programs, they are increasingly selective in their participation.
In fact, while consumers were members of 22% more loyalty programs in 2015 than 2014, they actively participated in 14% fewer. As a result, the typical consumer is only actively engaged in half of their enlisted loyalty programs. While this decline can be disheartening, an impressive 83% of respondents reported that loyalty programs make them more likely to continue using a company.
So what is causing lackluster loyalty program engagement? According to the study, the leading reasons that users express a negative sentiment toward a given loyalty program are threefold:
- 44% of users are turned away by a lack of reward relevance, flexibility, or perceived value
- 33% of users are frustrated by inconsistent experiences across devices
- 17% of users become jaded by poor customer service
So what can publishers do? What are they doing? Already, 33% of top retailers offer a loyalty rewards point system, and another 37% are expected to adopt such features in the next few years. As such, simply offering a points system is not enough to pique the interest and loyalty of users. Rather, mobile app publishers must consider a more robust mobile user loyalty system that:
- offers reward catered to the user’s interests (important for 75% of users)
- alert users when they are near a reward threshold (used by 29% of mobile retailers)
- offer limited time promotions (used by 25% of mobile retailers)
- remind users to use their rewards (40% of users have forgotten to redeem rewards)
While planning out a loyalty reward system more thoroughly requires a marked additional effort, the return can be considerable. For instance, 32% of users reported that being a member of a loyalty program actually increased their loyalty with the brand, and 28% reported that this loyalty results in spending more.
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