The Mobile Loyalty Advantage: Retaining Customers in the Age of M-Commerce

Do you remember the days when you had to use coupon codes that came on small cards to get a discount on a purchase? Those days are long gone. The growing popularity of smartphones has encouraged customers to look for special offers, discounted deals, and exciting rewards on the retailer’s website. Everything—from gathering information about a specific brand to applying a coupon code to making a purchase—is done on a mobile device, which is convenient for customers. 

But how can retailers tap into the potential of M-commerce? What changes can help grow your customer base or increase retention? There are tons of marketing options to attract the attention of new and existing clients, but if you want a quick customer response and a solid boost in your revenue, mobile loyalty programs are your best bet. In this post, we’ve explored the benefits of implementing loyalty programs into your M-commerce marketing strategy. Let’s get started.

Mobile Loyalty: How It Works?

A loyalty program is one of the most powerful marketing tools for a business planning to grow its clientele or retain existing customers. Mobile loyalty is exactly what the name suggests — a loyalty program accessible on smartphones. It’s an excellent strategy for businesses that want their customers to return to their stores for repeat shopping, showing that their loyalty is appreciated and valued.

However, studies reveal that customers do the math before signing up for such programs. Just giving a few reward points for each purchase won’t garner their attention. If you want to make an impact, you need to come up with an impressive mobile-optimized loyalty program that allows flexibility in spending. Your loyal customers must be able to spend the reward points however they like and for whichever product they prefer. 

Take Starbucks, for example. The company attributes a whopping 40% of its sales to its reward programs. They have created a simple yet appealing loyalty program that is accessible through mobile devices. For every dollar spent on Starbucks, a customer earns some stars. 

The best part is that you just need 25 stars to redeem them for free food and drinks at Starbucks. The more you spend, the more stars you’ll earn, and the more you can buy free food. In addition, Starbucks offers many exclusive benefits to its loyal members. This encourages Starbucks customers to accumulate reward points and return them for repeat purchases.

How Mobile Loyalty Helps with Customer Retention

The benefits of loyalty programs go beyond discounts, cashback, and free products. Let’s see how it helps businesses retain customers.

Customer Engagement

As mentioned above, loyalty programs are not just about incentivizing purchases. It’s more about creating a personalized and engaging shopping experience for loyal customers. It tells a lot about a customer’s buying preferences and budget. 

An engaging and interactive shopping experience ensures that your customers often check your website or respond to your push notifications and emails for the latest offers. Loyalty programs also serve as a communication channel, which helps businesses send updates about the latest offerings, price drops, a discount, and other such information to the selected buyers.

Incentives

Who wouldn’t want to receive free products, discounts on their favorite items, cashback offers, and other incentives? Loyalty programs, especially those optimized for smartphone users, seem promising. 

They are so effective that the right loyalty program can encourage a customer to buy products they didn’t intend to purchase before visiting your store. Some programs are designed to convince buyers to add more products to their shopping carts and make frequent purchases to level up their membership and get more exclusive, discounted deals.

Personalized Shopping Experience

Most customer loyalty programs are designed to cater to customers’s individual needs and preferences. Businesses collect extensive data about customers’ buying behaviors based on their previous purchases and how they use the incentives. 

They use this data to segment their audience and send relevant ads and updates about different offers. This personalized shopping journey allows customers to get multiple rewards, which results in major savings. For retailers, a loyalty program translates into more customer visits and, hence, increased sales and revenue. So, it’s a win-win. 

Popular mobile loyalty programs 

Here are a few popular mobile loyalty programs you can integrate into your marketing strategy to boost customer retention.

Scan and earn

This feature requires in-app QR code scanning. Once customers complete a purchase at your store, they must click the picture of the receipt or scan the barcode on the packaging through your company’s app. Once the information is updated and verified, a specific number of reward points are transferred to the customer’s account. They can redeem them once they reach a minimum pre-determined redemption point. 

Loyalty Reward Catalog

There are two benefits to adding a loyalty reward catalog to your online store.

One, your customers can select from a wide variety of products they can buy for free or at a discounted price using the reward points they’ve earned from previous purchases.

Secondly, it’s a good advertising strategy to show your customers your offerings other than the ones they’ve explored or bought. There’s a chance they might invest in your other products if they seem relevant to their requirements.

Loyalty Coupons

You may have seen or used coupon codes to avail discounts on different products. Nearly every industry leverages coupon codes for loyal customers, from restaurants to skincare shops to clothing stores. Let your customers use a special code to enjoy a discount on their favorite product or cashback rewards. It’s a great way to boost your revenue and get your customers to revisit your store.

Conclusion

Mobily loyalty gives buyers a solid reason to continue shopping at your store. You need a high-quality mobile app that supports a loyalty program, the right loyalty mechanism that brings your customers back to your store, and a personalized shopping journey that meets your customers’ demands. That’s how you can use an e-commerce loyalty program to your advantage.