Fixing, And Cashing In On, Loyalty Cards

In case you missed it, there was an interesting piece in the January/February issue of Transaction Trends, the Electronic Transactions Association's official publication. I highly recommend it, as it was a good look ahead. The feature, "Putting the 'L' in M-Commerce" was an interview with several prominent industry executives about loyalty cards and programs.

Today, however, loyalty card programs are fragmented, to put it politely. Many retailers have programs, varying from the very low tech (think buy-10-get-1-free punch cards) to the very high-tech & complex (how many airlines miles do I get with each purchase?). Customers tend to use cards, if at all, only for their top few top retailers. As a result, a host of different strategies are coming to market to try to capitalize on this problem.