Consumers are most comfortable with brands that utilize their purchase history to enhance loyalty experiences, such as receiving personalized offers based on their individual purchases.

Consumers expect personalization from brands. Our latest Loyalty Barometer Report revealed that 64 percent of consumers want to receive personalized offers based on their past purchases and 60 percent would like to personalize the way that they can earn.

These custom experiences give the participant the control to make the program specific to their needs, increasing the relevancy and connection they have with the program and the brand.

In addition, 63 percent of consumers want a seamless experience across online and offline commerce experiences, and they want to be recognized whenever and wherever they interact with the brand.

Digitally native brands were designed to collect data (i.e., first- and zero-party data) and activate this data across channels to create a consistent customer experience. This can be more challenging for traditional brands due to operating complex martech stacks and potential data silos; however, loyalty programs can help drive identity efforts by integrating elements such as profile development, preference centers, and engaging personality tests.

The increase in online purchases, due to the impact of the pandemic, caused many brands to rapidly shift gears from brick-and-mortar stores to digital sales and online experiences. As vaccines and other regulatory steps become more widely accepted, which will increase consumer confidence and drive in-store shopping, it will be important for brands to readjust and provide a consistent and relevant experience for customers across all touchpoints, including digital and physical.

What about data privacy?

While consumers expect a personalized experience, privacy concerns increased since last year, and consumer comfort with allowing their data to be used to enhance their experience has decreased.

The events of 2020 – including the implementation of contact tracing to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, the awareness of social inequality and its ties to demographic data, and the heightened concern around the data collection and utilization within social media – have accelerated consumer privacy concerns and elevated consumer sensitivity.

In last year’s mid-year report, updated for the pandemic, we saw that consumer comfort levels decreased across all data types. This trend has continued in this latest research with further decreases across most data types (except for purchase history and current rewards status).

Only 54% of consumers are comfortable with brands using their purchase history to make their rewards more relevant.

With this increased sensitivity, it is not enough to simply meet the legal privacy requirements; a brand must be transparent and illustrate to the customer, within the loyalty program experience, how consumer data will be stored and used to benefit the customer experience.

Brands must socialize and maintain strict privacy policies to protect data and need to demonstrate to consumers how they will benefit from the data collected to drive emotional ties and gain consumer trust.

Download the full Loyalty Barometer Report for more detailed insights.

Earn loyalty through a collection of positive moments

With experience building loyalty programs — leveraging personalization and recognition — for top brands, we can customize a program that meets your unique business needs and consumer experiences. Our team can development solutions for your consumer engagement needs: defining a new initiative, optimizing an ongoing program, or understanding the next step in your marketing evolution.

Whatever you’re looking for, we can help. Contact us to set up a quick call with one of our experts.