Loyalty programs: key to alleviating the crisis

The latest study by Rethink, 85 percent of brands participating in shopping center loyalty programs have intensified their participation during confinement.

According to Rethink, an agency specialized in loyalty and digital transformation for shopping centers and retail chains, retailers have turned to the possibility of using the direct channels that the center offers to direct their campaigns to qualified databases.

Between March and June, Rethink has managed more than 5,000 actions with retailers aimed at enhancing the reservation of services during confinement, giving visibility to online offers, generating traffic to their marketplaces or offering experiences and incentives for decision activation shopping.

According to José Luis Pastor, CEO of Rethink, “Direct communication with local audiences is a primary requirement on the part of retailers. When a mall has the ability to connect the retailer to local communities, and can do so in a segmented, real-time manner, and by measuring its effectiveness, we are bringing value to the retailer that others cannot offer. ”

Technology, the axis for optimal management of digital campaigns

The shopping centers have been able to value their ecosystem and the channels of arrival to the different target audiences of interest to retailers. They had built and enriched them thanks to all the revitalization actions under the centers' loyalty program.

Belén Pinel, head of the Rethink shopping center area, says: “We have closed more than 300 new retailer signing agreements that want to participate in the marketing scope provided by loyalty clubs and the traceability we have of all this. Retailers see us as business generators, since all the actions that we propose to them have this object, and not only that, we have captured more than 100,000 euros in prizes contributed by the brands that have allowed us to launch more than 3,000 drawings to clients in exchange of purchase tickets or use of coupons ”.

Build loyalty to cushion the effects of the Covid-19

The 2008 crisis led shopping centers to prioritize their loyalty investments in view of a contraction in family budgets, and therefore in the frequency of spending and the average ticket. Today, we are facing the same situation and it seems logical that efforts should be concentrated on strengthening the relationship of those who are in the area of influence closest to the center.

The study also reveals that 98 percent of the brands have renewed their participation in these programs in the last year, and that there have been increases of 220 percent in the interaction with the proposals of the clubs.

José Luis Pastor concludes: “The marketing of the shopping center will be innocuous if it does not have a business orientation. The greatest asset we have is data and the ability to reach these audiences directly and differently in content. Brands know that they require the mall to get traffic to their business, but the concept of traffic is no longer just physical, and that is where the center must activate its precision marketing machinery to activate the behaviors of its buyers.

This article was originally published on FashionUnited.ES, edited and translated to English

Photo credit: Artem Beliaikin, Unsplash