Webinar Recap: Loyalty Program Best Practice for Retailers in 2023

Lightspeed and Marsello recently hosted a live webinar with guest speaker Rory Moss, who shared what he’s learned over the years from working on loyalty programs for brands such as McDonalds, Toyota and Dermalogica.

The discussion also touched on a range of topics, from the importance of collecting omnichannel data to developing personalised marketing techniques. In this article, we’ll recap the key takeaways from the webinar, so you can get inspired to optimise your customer loyalty program. 

Who was on the panel?

Hosted by Ross Moss, Chief Revenue Officer at Marsello, Rory has over ten years of loyalty marketing experience and a true passion for helping merchants develop value-based loyalty programs that enhance the customer journey.

Alongside Rory, panellist Ruby Gibson also shares her expertise during the webinar. Ruby has worked in the retail software industry for seven years and has helped thousands of small to medium-sized retailers across Australia and New Zealand, the UK and Europe to find the best loyalty and marketing solutions for their business. 

What challenges do retailers face in 2023?

From Covid lockdowns impacting in-person shopping to supply chain issues and staff shortages, the retail industry has had it tough over the last few years. But what challenges are retailers facing in 2023?

• Cost of living crisis: inflation has led to a decrease in customer spending, as customers have less discretionary spending power.
• Cost of digital advertising: it’s becoming more expensive to advertise online, with average digital ad costs up 41% YoY.
• Increased competition: big box retailers are expanding, increasing price competition.
• Cost to acquire new customers: it’s costly to acquire new customers, and retailers often don’t have enough data to understand the ROI for acquisition incentives.  
• Retailers adopting technology: many retailers shifting online and using technology to help develop a competitive advantage.

Customer loyalty

There’s more to customer loyalty than earning and redeeming points. Customer loyalty is a relationship that exists between your business and your customers – you need to build positive interactions with your customers to enhance the relationship and add value.

It’s a common misconception that you need a loyalty program to differentiate and compete. In reality, loyalty programs are just one tactic. You need to employ a holistic customer loyalty and marketing strategy to gain a deeper understanding of your customers and keep them coming back. 

The importance of omnichannel data

For many customers, shopping is an omnichannel experience – with many researching and purchasing products both online and in-store. As a result, retailers need to be able to track customer behaviour across channels to gain a better understanding of their spending habits.

Without this data, it can be difficult to paint an accurate picture of your customers, which means you may miss valuable opportunities for revenue growth.

Why you need omnichannel data

Integrating your point of sale system with your loyalty platform makes it easier to track your customer data across channels.

• Capture data on customer purchases, preferences and behaviour
• Link in-store and online sales to unique customer profiles 
• Gain a comprehensive understanding of your customer base
• Create a seamless shopping experience for your customers, from online to in-store
• Get detailed insights to optimise your marketing

Marketing tips and techniques

If you’re in the process of setting up or optimising your customer loyalty and marketing strategy, keep the following tips in mind.

• Keep it simple: don’t overcomplicate your loyalty rewards program, or you’ll risk confusing customers and discouraging them from spending. 
• Use data to optimise: dig into your loyalty program data to see what’s working and what’s not. For example, are customers engaging with your program? Compare your sign-up data to your redemption data to see if customers are spending their points. If not, you’ll need to make some tweaks to increase engagement.
• Introduce new campaigns quarterly: keep things fresh and exciting by introducing new perks every quarter. Think double points days, new rewards and VIP perks. 
• Personalise your communications: use your data to create customer segments based on things like product type, price and purchase frequency to craft personalised, targeted marketing messages.

What to measure

Once your loyalty program and marketing campaigns are up and running, it’s important to track their performance to measure the success of your initiatives. Here are some metrics you should keep in mind when monitoring your results.

• Customer feedback: are customers engaging with your loyalty program?
• Customer lifetime value: the average amount of money a customer spends with your store over their transaction lifetime.
• Redemption rate: are customers spending their points?
• Average purchase frequency: the average rate at which customers shop at your store.
• ROI: cost of your loyalty program vs increase in revenue.  

Loyalty program best practice: watch the recording now

If you missed the live webinar and are considering implementing a customer loyalty program into your retail business, this is an excellent opportunity to hear about real-world loyalty marketing tips and tactics from industry experts.