When supply chain issues and panic buying left grocery shelves empty for weeks, shoppers had to consider alternative options when their go-to brands weren’t available. In fact, in the height of the pandemic, 85% of consumers said brand names no longer mattered, and 69% said they would purchase a different brand if their preferred brand wasn’t in-stock. 

There’s no doubt that the past year has had a major impact on consumer purchase behaviors, and many brands and retailers are reevaluating their current strategies and considering new avenues for building, and maintaining, customer loyalty. Enter: loyalty programs and rewards apps. 

“There’s a misconception that if you build a rewards program, customers will love it… but every marketer knows that’s not true. If people don’t feel like they’re getting a benefit, if it’s too limited, if it’s hard to get rewards, if it’s confusing, they can tend to fall flat. And it does impact buying behavior, customers consider the quality of loyalty programs in buying,” says Jaysen Gillespie, SVP of Data and Analytics at Shopkick. 

There’s a ton that brands and retailers can learn about loyalty from the last 12 months, room for improvement, and an abundance of data to inform decisions moving forward. In Market Scale’s Retail Refined Podcast, Gillespie joins host Melissa Gonzalez to discuss trends in consumer engagement and app usage, how the quality of reward programs determine adoption, how to use consumer buying data to cultivate stronger loyalty, and more.

Listen here: https://marketscale.com/industries/retail/strengthening-customer-loyalty-with-data/