Loyalty application: digital customer card on your mobile

Companies can save the additional cost of plastic cards used to reward customer loyalty by using a mobile application, and customers also prefer the mobile app, which is “always in their pocket”. Here are five reasons why merchants should consider developing a loyalty app.

Customers like loyalty programs: a relevant research by Nielsen proves that 67% of users involved in customer loyalty programs spend more and visit those stores more often, where they can use the offered benefits.

Mobile applications provide several advantages for the merchant too. They collect data, which can be effectively integrated in their sales strategy. Read on for 5 reasons, why you should choose the loyalty app.

1. You cannot lose a loyalty card app

The disadvantage of plastic loyalty cards is that they are easily lost, or that you don’t have them with you when you need them. The loyalty app fully eliminates this problem: since you always have your mobile device at hand, you will be more comfortable using your loyalty “card”. A periodic reminder to use it will suffice.

Another benefit of loyalty apps is that everything is accessible at a click via the phone, the app records customer ids and bank card data. You don’t have to fumble with plastic cards and receipts, the points are awarded within the application, and you can reach your coupons and the data of previous purchases too.

The focus shifting to comfort and safety can be see with the expansion of m-commerce too: customers tend to manage most of their shopping by mobile applications (shopping apps) more and more.

2. The loyalty card app lets you connect the online and offline distribution channels

Mobile applications effectively support omnichannel sales strategies: customers can easily and smoothly switch channels, meaning that they can use their app both for online and offline transactions. This might come in handy when the customers start purchasing on mobile and end the transaction on their laptop, or when they are browsing at the shop but they cannot find the right colour or size, so they use their mobile to check if the wanted product is available at a different store or in the webshop, and they order it online.

However, merchants should always aim to present themselves with consistent information, offers and services and uniform brand presence on different platforms.

How can you build a successful webshop? How can you make more out of your webshop using UX and Service Design? How can you start a mobile shop application?

Tips, advice and case studies are available in LogiNet’s free to download 80 page e-book. Download the "ECOMMERCE GROWTH BOOK OF SUCCESS" from the LogiNet website HERE.

3. Continuous relationship with customers by push messages

Customers can be contacted anywhere and anytime using push messages within the application. Regular customers expect to get notified first about promotions and to receive personalised news about useful information or the introduction of a new product.

Push messages can even be optimised with consideration to where the customer is located (close to a store or in a specific store, so a notification can be sent about current special offers at the shop, or even about which cash register has the shortest queue), when they usually check their messages and when they usually make purchases (in the beginning, middle or at the end of the month).

4. Targeted communication and traceability

Loyalty apps help merchants in mapping customer habits better, so that they can append their strategy and reach their target audience accordingly.

The app records which store the customer visited, what they bought, what they could not find at the offline shop and what kind of information they wanted to see about the product. The data tells us how many customers used the discounts, which special offers were the most successful and at which store was the app used the most.

Using customer loyalty applications you can target your customers with personalised discounts and special offers, which result in a higher cart value.

The application can also help in creating a customer community: ratings, comments and even blog posts can be attached to the individual products. You can easily create different lists, collect favourite products and access product information quickly and easily.

Convenience functions urge users to make purchases, and result in satisfied customers, who will return.

5. Brand building by mobile application

Developing a mobile app is also beneficial for brand building, since the merchant can be present in the customer’s daily life, their logo will always be present on their mobile phone screen.

It’s fundamental for a successful application to be simple and user-friendly – by definition it has to comply with these requirements continuously, taking customer feedback into account -, and it has to reward loyalty. This is possible by collecting points, individual offers and other desirable elements (such as free delivery over a certain order amount or birthday presents).

The etalon usually mentioned for loyalty apps is Starbucks, since its "Rewards" program has been running for years with huge success: customers may collect stars with their purchases and exchange them for different rewards.