Chinese New Year Special- Customer Engagement Gamification Ideas for Brands

Posted on January 13, 2023 by Aditi Aggarwal

Every year Chinese New Year (also called the Lunar New Year) sets a grand stage for retailers and consumers alike. With the rising population of Asians in every part of the globe and a ubiquitous China market finding a home in every metropolitan city, CNY celebrations have become a global phenomenon. In fact, London is renowned for its magnanimous Lunar New Year Celebrations every year followed by California which is all set to embrace this tradition in Disney California Adventure Park this 2023. Last year, some fashion brands across the US and the UK too embraced this tradition by incorporating festive elements into their collection.

This year is more special as it marks the year of the ‘Wood Rabbit’ – which happens once in a 60-year cycle. Being the year of the Rabbit, the Chinese New Year 2023 does bring in wit, luck, and optimism for everyone. Starting on January 22nd this year, the celebrations will last till February 1st and some of the most inspiring brands have restructured their marketing and engagement strategies to woo a larger global audience now. Since gifting is a very crucial and the most common part of the Lunar New Year tradition practiced by Asians, global brands have stepped up to raise their quarterly sales despite the 2-week-long shutdown in some of the popular Asian markets. In this blog, we will take a look at the top 5 brands from different industries that are all set to win and engage customers with Chinese New Year gamification ideas. These can be looked at as ideas for other brands to spin up innovative customer engagement campaigns during festivities:

1. Food & Beverage: Lurpak’s Digital Engagement Strategy

Spinning in the gamification engagement strategy well in time is Lurpak, bringing in a treat for all the home bakers with its Bake Up Prosperity – Spin, Win, and Ong this Chinese New Year (also see an introduction to gamification in reward programs). Customers stand a winning chance to take home some of the sure-shot prizes such as Branded Electric Oven, RM8 Credit Limited Edition TnG Card, Thermal Cooler Bag, and other RM8 CNY E-Angpow Rewards. They have also broadcasted a super cool video of home bakers to connect well with their audience and create brand awareness during this time.

2. Luxury: GUCCI raising the stakes on hyper-personalization

When it comes to luxury and fashion, GUCCI never disappoints. Like every year, this year too GUCCI launches its spring collection with colorful rabbit imprints on knitwear, t-shirts, shoes, and watches with exclusive pieces for men, women, and kids exhibiting unique geometric graphics and contrasting hues. Available in select stores, customers can also send a personalized e-card using the festive elements from the curated selection of GUCCI to their loved ones.

3. Hypermarkets: Giant’s in-store weekend bonanza

Giant – Malaysia’s grocery veteran with over 46 stores spread across the peninsular region has packed a special Lunar New Year Hamper during this period. Besides running regular offers and discounts every single day starting January 2023, customers with a minimum purchase of RM88 (on a single receipt) get a chance to spin the brand’s Wheel of Fortune at some of the selected stores in the city during weekends. This is a great crowd-puller for weekends thereby increasing the overall footfall of the store and keeping up with the festive spirit at the same time (check out Capillary’s solutions for retail).

4. Electronics: Apple’s emotional connection with customers

Never failing to strike an emotional chord with customers is Apple who launched its exclusive Chinese New Year homepage to welcome the Lunar New Year celebrations – offering a wide range of special discounts on their bestselling products during this time in some parts of the globe. Just a month back, Apple released Rabbit AirPods Pro with a rabbit engraving on it giving a perfect opportunity to its customers for gifting during this period.

5. Café & Restaurants: Starbucks for hearty Lunar New Year treats

The globally renowned American multinational chain of coffee houses – Starbucks is all set to dazzle its customers with the launch of 2023 Chinese New Year collection. At the onset of every lunar calendar, the brand offers a range of assortment in the form of mugs, tumblers, jars, cups, and gift vouchers – this year with Rabbit as the Chinese Zodiac imprint on its merchandise. Their range is not just restricted to merchandise but also food as they include cookies, breakfast, and beverage lineup tweaked to suit Lunar New Year festivities.

Check out Capillary’s Loyalty+

How marketplaces also run the show during Lunar New Year

While offline stores have created their story, online marketplaces shine with soaring sales during this time. Online sellers like Shopee, Lelong, Lazada, and Aliexpress have often mentioned that the sales during Lunar New Year are quite similar to the sales observed during other holiday seasons like Thanksgiving and Black Friday. In fact, one of the most incredible statistics is that in 2021, online retail sales were 821 Billion Yuan during the Chinese New Year, despite the pandemic. Owing to the brief migration of a large Asian population, marketplaces often become easy access to send and receive gifts.

Irrespective, of whatever medium your brand chooses to sell your product or service on during this celebratory period, make sure you do not forget to engage with your customers at the right time and at the right place with the most befitting loyalty and engagement strategy. Start gamifying your brand for Chinese New Year!

Luxury Loyalty: A Comprehensive Guide

Posted on January 12, 2023 by Aditi Aggarwal

For decades, loyalty programs have remained a distant cousin to luxury brands. An often-debated argument is luxury brands’ willingness to take the loyalty route. As if COVID-19 wasn’t enough, 2022 started with an unexpected turn of events with a raging war leading to economic downturn across the globe. Despite this, the luxury market is expected growth was up by 21% from 2021. And by 2030, the luxury market value is expected to climb around €540-580 billion, a rise of 60% or more compared to 2022. The market is booming and marketers are now warming up to the idea of instilling brand loyalty in the luxury goods segment.

This guide captures the intricate detailing of the luxury goods market in 2022 & beyond to see how the digital progression is fostering a loyalty-first environment globally, even in the luxury retail market.

Challenges of the glitterati world of luxury loyalty

2020 & beyond presented extreme challenges – with every industry taking a hit, every sector retreating, and every luxury shopper changing once and for all. The luxury goods market saw its imminent slowdown. Globally, both brands and designers struggled to overcome the newly self-conscious behaviour of more mindful consumers. For legacy brands it was, then, about finding new ways of recreating the brands’ physical universe online. But are all the brands ready to ride along? Let’s look at 3 major challenges that stand upfront for marketers:

1. Brand Stature: Luxury goods are products that nobody really wants but everybody needs. The predicament for marketers selling luxury products is to determine whether loyalty programs would devalue or enhance a premium brand’s image. Many brand marketers often feel that rewarding freebies like discounts and other related offers might downsize their otherwise high-end products or services.

1. Low Frequency: You own a Louis Vuitton and that stays with you. You wear a Prada and well, that too lasts forever. Most luxury retailers do not interact with the customer for a year or so after having sold a high-priced item to them. This leads to a lower shopping frequency and poses a huge challenge for marketers.

Impeccable service: Knowing that luxury brands already offer a high-end experience to their customers, understanding the next-level of experiential benefits in this category is no child’s play. The challenge is then to think of rewards that are beyond the unthinkable for their customer groups.

The anatomy of creating a luxury loyalty program

Luxury loyalty is all about capturing the brand’s cultural ethos, and creating a space for creativity and innovation. Let’s look at what we term as the 4Es of creating a luxury loyalty program.

1. Exclusivity: Shoppers don’t come to a brand for mere discounts and rewards; they look for exclusivity. An exclusive preview of the celebrity collection, signed merchandise, offering coalition loyalty benefits by partnering with high-end partners like five-star diners, and travel escapades could uplift the positive persona of a luxury brand. Luxury shoppers look for a world beyond discounts and rewards. Your brand must clearly reflect why your premium shoppers are offered a set of privileges that are exclusive only to a specific number of shoppers.

1. Experiential: The biggest premise for any luxury loyalty program is to customize experiences for their shoppers by creating surprise and delight. Dolce and Gabbana reframed the majestic architecture of their stores through the virtual boutique experience project.

1. Ecosystem: Loyalty is about building an entire rewards portfolio and diversifying it. The American cosmetic luxury retailer, BlueMercury, has partnered with high-end cosmetic and skincare brands like Bobbi Brown, La Mer, Jo Malone, Yves Saint Laurent, and many others to offer an exclusive and fulfilling rewards experience. For their most loyal customers, the glam retailer offers an annual gift package to its members.
  
  Singapore’s Kris Flyer Program allows flyers to redeem their points not only on air tickets or travel-related offerings but other premium partners like five-star dining and shopping with other luxury fashion brands.

Essence: Similarly, if your brand focuses on using sustainable products, your loyalty program must resonate with how sustainability is core to your brand values and larger organizational purpose. Moncler has a dedicated sustainability tab on their webshop, while UK’s Stella McCartney created new labels that encouraged taking better care of clothing for longer lifespans.

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5 luxury brands that are innovating in the loyalty space

1. Burberry– The brand also launched its first global game to enchant young luxury consumers on their website. With “b Bounce”, a new puffer collection was launched with the objective of using gamification as an effective engagement strategy. All products are tagged with QR codes for scanning to receive a social currency. The same currency can be traded for rewards and discounts. Further, customer interaction is captured on social channels by building a tangible digital dimension to traditional retail channels. Through a dedicated WeChat mini program, customers can unlock exclusive content and personalized experiences and share them with their communities.

1. Le Bon Marché– The LVMH-owned store in Paris opened an in-store digital customization segment for the hyper-personalization of its product offerings. Customers have access to over 80+ international brands, and can customize clothes, shoes, and other accessories, or even draw their own t-shirts.

1. Saks Fifth Avenue also offers an option to shop a look from its New York store through a video chat feature. This seamless plugin of web chat capabilities paired with in-store or appointments before or after hours – packs an impactful customer engagement strategy for its loyal fan brigade.

1. Sephora Beauty Program – Since makeup is an industry which is largely driven by recommendations and referrals, Sephora’s Beauty Insider Community program personalized its experience for its loyal customers perfectly. Their live community allows customers to join exclusive beauty community meetups based on their individual beauty interests, and offers credible product recommendations, tutorials, and expert opinions.

Louis Vuitton has portrayed an excellent example by setting up an equally promising website that offers the provision to book in-store as well as virtual appointments. It also offers a collect-in-store option to some of its exclusive loyal members at different locations, thereby abiding by global safety norms.

Fashionistas tête-à-tête with technology

The priorities have been reset across luxury fashion brands, and five strategies clearly stood out for every retailer. As the world is dominated by Generation Y and Z, these generations are expected to account for 55% of the overall luxury sales market by 2025.

1. Lights, Camera and Live E-commerce: Did you know that Gucci livestreamed a 12 hour-long digital fashion show? Now is the time for brands to switch to live streaming platforms. Here, luxury shoppers can not only see but experience how suitable or relevant a product is for them.

800 Mn+ people watch live videos daily across Instagram and Facebook, resulting in a new roll out of features to enable brands to get the most out of their live broadcasts. In addition to Instagram Live Shopping, users now have the option to view the broadcasts live on desktop computers along with their smartphones.

2. Omnichannel now in vogue: There is now a pressing need for brands to catch hold of a customer’s attention across the right channels. Luxury fashion brands have, thus, shifted their focus to analyzing and acting upon omnichannel shopping behavior. For the prediction and capitalization of present and future luxury shopper analytics, an omnichannel integration is a key expectation for luxury retail digitization.

Amongst all, GUCCI tops the list of omnichannel digital presence. The brand remains one of the industry’s best-in-class digital performers, by leveraging digital storytelling, omnichannel experiences, eCommerce, and, of course, a constant drive to innovate online. From digital gifting with split payments to AR-powered try-on features on Snapchat and the Gucci App, the brand is constantly experimenting like there’s no tomorrow.

3. Luxuriously phygital: An everyday example of phygital retail would be a typical consumer who always shops with a smartphone in hand, often checking product details to help them choose offline. In the retail sense, the term has gained prominence recently, referring to the blending of the best online and offline features of the shopping experience. Nordstrom is a U.S. luxury fashion retailer which recognizes that the foundation of a phygital strategy is the seamless ease and convenience of the customer experience.

A. The brand’s Neighbourhood Stores allow the customer to touch and feel the products they browse online.

B. The integrated-app experience with the stores offer a seamless shopping experience to shoppers by using a combination of both physical and digital stores.

C. Their Instagram and Pinterest accounts allow users to click on a posted photo and take them straight to the Nordstrom online shop where they can order online or reserve the item in-store.

4. The Fashion Subscription Model: Subscriptions not only ensure that your consumers are updated about the latest offerings for but also promises consumer loyalty upon delivering the brand promise.

Ralph Lauren introduced The Lauren Look – the company’s first subscription apparel rental initiative. Starting at $125 a month, subscribers are able to access a constantly changing range of Lauren Ralph apparel: including dresses, pants and tops. Pieces are accompanied by suggestions from personal stylists on how to wear them.

5. Appointment shopping: Aptly shared by John Federman (CEO of JRNI), “Appointments allow you to keep the lights on and effectively schedule staff. It also keeps the staff more productive. If an associate can spend time with someone with a high propensity to buy, they can use their time more effectively.”

Lululemon leads the frontier to allow consumers to book appointments to browse before, during or after regular store hours. Giorgio Armani too opened around 100 of his stores with a new system of booking appointments online. This practice was immediately adopted post-pandemic, ensuring social distancing practiced as the new norm.

How Capillary enables luxury brands to benefit from loyalty programs

When we also look at how online luxury sales are broken down, we see that the multibrand marketplaces are expanding to reveal how the digital luxury customer is seeking an ecosystem offering more value than points. Luxury brands, thus, need to overhaul their loyalty game for the luxuriously affable Generation Z, and barge out of their closets to offer experiences building an element of exclusivity in their offerings. The conventional earn and burn won’t fit into the high-end luxury world.

Given the many trends that have shifted in the last eighteen months, the key to design a loyalty program for a luxury brand has completely been revamped. Therefore, luxury loyalty is not just about rewards, it is how brands leverage data to understand the customer buying patterns and build memorable customer experiences. However, for luxury brands to deliver this benefit, they must invest in extracting and analyzing customer data to derive meaningful insights. This is where many luxury brands show resistance today but as the field of data science progresses and more luxury brands come on board, there will be significant improvement in the times to come. Many brands have already begun to evolve their existing loyalty programs to cater to the changes in the luxury industry.

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Capillary’s Secured Identity Management For Your Loyalty Marketing Programs

Posted on January 10, 2023 by Jubin Mehta

Data Privacy, Security, and Identity Management have become increasingly important in today’s digital world. Customers’ expectations have gone up and at the same time, customers have become more private about their data. Plus, with data laws (GDPR, LGPD, ePrivacy, and others) becoming more stringent, it seems like everything is stacked against the marketer. But if one looks at this objectively, the fundamentals remain the same.

Customers are looking for a great experience wrapped around a product/service and if a brand provides that, the chances of a customer remaining loyal to a brand are much higher. And this is exactly what a brand wants. To achieve this, brands need to be mindful of the data privacy laws of the region and use that to arrive at a seamless experience along with building flexibility within the system so that processes can change.

What is Identity? And components of Identity Management

Firstly, we need to understand what we mean by identity and its components. Identity can be looked at as a sliding scale of attributes varying from person level (individually addressable) to non-person level (not individually addressable).

There are various kinds of data: zero-party data, first-party data, second-party data, and third-party data. The first three of them would fall under individually addressable data and then there are- cohort & segment-based audiences and contextual audiences.

An advanced CDP (consumer data platform) like Capillary’s CDP+ is a secure way to resolve identities and help marketers get the best out of their customer data. But before we get there, there are several factors with identity management that have to be considered in the context of loyalty management software.

Challenges with identity and customer data for a loyalty marketer

Ensuring the accuracy of customer data: It’s essential to ensure that customer data is accurate and up to date to provide a seamless experience for customers and prevent issues such as incorrect points balances or rewards.

Maintaining data privacy and security: Protecting customer data is crucial in order to maintain trust and prevent data breaches. This includes implementing measures such as secure authentication and access controls.

Managing multiple customer touchpoints: Customers may interact with a company through multiple channels, such as in-store, online, and over the phone. It’s important to be able to seamlessly connect these interactions and maintain a consistent view of the customer across all channels.

Dealing with incomplete or incorrect data: It’s not uncommon for customers to provide incomplete or inaccurate information, either intentionally or unintentionally. This can make it difficult to accurately identify and track customers, leading to issues with personalized communication and marketing efforts.

Integration with other systems: In order to provide a comprehensive view of the customer, loyalty management software may need to be integrated with other systems such as financial, marketing, or HR systems. This can present challenges in terms of data compatibility and security.

How can a CDP or software help with identity management

Now, when you’re selecting a platform to run efficient and secured loyalty programs, here are some things that a platform can help you with.

Implementing secure authentication: This can include methods such as multi-factor authentication, which requires users to provide additional proof of identity beyond just a username and password.

Encrypt sensitive data: Encrypting data makes it unreadable to anyone who does not have the proper decryption key, protecting it from being accessed by unauthorized parties.

Use secure servers: Storing customer data on secure servers, such as those that use firewalls and intrusion detection systems, can help prevent unauthorized access.

Regularly update security measures: It’s important to keep security measures up to date in order to stay ahead of new threats. This can include installing software updates and patches as they become available.

Educate users: Providing users with information on how to protect their own identity, such as using strong passwords and being cautious of phishing attacks, can help prevent identity theft.

Monitor for suspicious activity: Regularly monitoring for suspicious activity, such as unexpected login attempts or unusual data access, can help detect potential identity theft and allow for quick response. (read about Capillary’s Fraud Detection for loyalty programs)

Capillary’s Product Suite comes with Built-In Identity Resolution

At Capillary, the heart of the platform is CDP+ where all consumer data securely resides. On top of CDP+, our flagship product Loyalty+ helps marketers execute some of the best loyalty programs (250+ brands use Loyalty+ to reach 875mn+ customers). Because to deliver a successful marketing program, a customer data platform alone is not sufficient. All this data has to be meaningfully resolved to deliver a highly personalized experience.

With Capillary’s technology, marketers can build a unified customer profile across all touchpoints by connecting identities, engagement data, customer orders, loyalty, marketing journeys, and privacy management. Capillary uses advanced resolution capabilities like fuzzy matching to reconcile identities through standard (common) ID to build unified profiles.

With these unified profiles, it becomes possible to not just make 1-1 relationships possible but deliver a true “1-You” experience where each experience is tailored for that particular customer in their context.

5 Ecommerce Trends That Will Kickstart 2023 With Profitable Growth

Posted on January 4, 2023 by Aprajeeta Singh

In 2021, ecommerce accounted for nearly 19 percent of retail sales worldwide. Statista’s forecasts indicate by 2026, the online segment will make up close to a quarter of total global retail sales.

The COVID-19 pandemic proved to be one of the key reasons behind the surge in ecommerce. As the situation made many offline retail businesses go online, many stayed there, looking at the benefits of going digital. With customers’ changing shopping behavior, even offline shoppers move to online shopping. At present, it’s hard to decide which approach can be best to get more customers. And, with increased competition, it turned more tricky.

That’s where constantly monitoring competition and ongoing trends is needed to run your e-tail business successfully. To make this strenuous task easy for you, we made a list of gripping ecommerce trends you can try to skyrocket your business growth in 2023.

1. Expedite your Sales with Mobile Commerce and Social Commerce

In 2021, net sales via mobile devices accounted for $359.32 billion and this figure is expected to get doubled by 2025. The figures entail the need for newer ecommerce businesses to go mobile-friendly to make their offerings accessible to a larger audience. Though the revolution started with a mobile-optimized version of websites and online stores, we are far ahead of responsive sites. By adding more and more mobile-friendly touchpoints for your users, you can easily bring more traction to your business.

In addition to responsive sites and m-commerce apps, perform your demographics analysis periodically. It helps you understand the share of young consumers and their channels of interaction with your brand. Since young consumers are changing the business landscape, brands are considering multiple touch points favorable to them, like social media, to create a stronger connection. Young shoppers have a greater inclination towards social commerce.

Clickable Instagram stories, Buy button on Facebook, Instagram checkout and the popularity of Instagram influencers have greatly changed the shopping patterns of audiences.

According to an eMarketer study, the count of social buyers in the US is expected to rise from 60.6 million in 2019 to 108 million in 2025— that’s more than a 75% increase in mobile shopping over just a few years. Learn and use these evolving trends to implement them in your marketing strategy for larger benefits.

2. Personalize Customer Experiences with AI-powered Commerce

80% of consumers are more likely to buy from a company that provides a tailored experience. So, if you are not offering personalized customer experiences, you’re already losing many potential buyers. When ecommerce gives you access to a lot of data, advanced technologies like AI, ML, and IoT give you the power to use it to know your shoppers better. Voice searches, recommendation engines, centralization of engagement channels, rich search experiences, and 360-degree customer journey makes it easier for you to understand the loopholes and fix them in real time.

Leveraging Artificial Intelligence, you can perform shopper’s mood tracking, give smart recommendations to your shoppers, and implement targeted ad campaigns with audience segmentation. Capillary’s suite of products powered with AI has rich search and consumer personalization functionalities covered for all enterprise-grade businesses. You can leverage our modular commerce platform to sell online, drive customer engagement, personalize your interactions, and earn loyal customers. Our intelligent aiRA framework based platform can keep all operations of your e-tail business aligned and capable to take your customer experiences to the next level.

3. Improve your Conversion Rates with Omnichannel Customer Experiences

Some customers love shopping online, while others prefer comparing products online to shopping offline. You better be available both in the digital and physical worlds when you don’t want to miss out on any of these two types of shoppers. Though customer shopping patterns changed a lot post-pandemic, we’re witnessing significant growth both for showrooming and webrooming. With rising customer acquisition costs (CAC), creating an omnipresent brand can favor your conversion rates rather than siding with one channel.

Build a consistent experience for your customers across all channels & platforms. Even the leading brands, like Saudi Arabia’s QSR are taking an omnichannel approach to drive crazy profits to their business. Adding multiple touch points will help you not to leave a vent to lose on shoppers. A resilient omnichannel system can keep you connected to your customers even at the times of rapid market shifts. So, you can take make your progressive plan towards building a long-term relationship getting into an omnichannel ecosystem.

4. Grow your Brand Serving a Community

Your business is for the people. In the post-pandemic era, customers are becoming more conscious about global and social causes. The brand’s support for the causes impacts their shopping decisions as well. So, going ahead with the monetary aspect of the business, you need to understand what bothers your customers and the change they like to make a living in the community.

Green consumerism, sustainable business practices, anti-racism community, equality, and several such impact-driven factors are on the rise. As an ecommerce business, you can start with green commerce, define the values your brand supports, and focus on the ones that align with your customers. This will not only delight your customers but will create an emotional connection with your consumers.

5. Bridge the Gap Between the Real and Reel World with Metaverse

Brands are trying multiple ways to convert their digital fans into shoppers. Some businesses are counting on visual commerce – live selling on Instagram and Facebook, while brands like Lenskart are investing in Virtual AR to give a digital try-on experience to their customers. When the ultimate goal is to delight website visitors and convert them to shoppers instantly, many ecommerce giants are investing in trending tech to improvise digital shopping experiences. Amazon’s AR shopping tool – Room decorator, is one intelligent application of AR to let customers shop for furniture and other home decors by virtually placing it in the room.

Taking these experiences to the next level, brands like Nike – Nikeland, Flipkart – Flipverse are leveraging Metaverse to create ‘real experiences in the virtual world. You can reach a wide range of audiences, especially millennials and GenZ, to entertain in the virtual world and boost customer engagement with gamification powered by avatars. Gartner predicts that 25% of people will spend at least one hour per day in the Metaverse by 2026, leaving you with a notion to explore this segment. Is your brand ready for Metaverse? Check here.

Add New Flavors to your Ecommerce Strategy

When the new year is around the corner, it’s time for you to decide the new ecommerce trends in 2023 that you can add to your marketing strategy to boost your profits. You can try all or some of the above-listed trending ideas to kickstart ecommerce growth in 2023 and drive your business’s success.

Want to personalize your customers’ shopping experiences to the next level? We have an all-inclusive ecommerce suite backed with loyalty and engagement solutions to make your brand name a label. Connect with us now to discuss this further.

Top 5 Customer Loyalty and Consumer Engagement Trends for 2023

Posted on January 1, 2023 by Aditi Aggarwal

The stupendous rate at which the customer loyalty market is growing every year has dazzled many industry experts. Daniel Heaf, VP of Nike Direct, says,

Membership is how Nike serves the needs of athletes and cultivates personal relationships with people across the many different experiences we provide. The more we know our members, the better we innovate to create value for them — whether in products, services, experiences, content, or inspiration.

Building customer relationships has taken a leap in every brand’s business strategy and organizations are using multiple customer engagement strategies to excel in this sphere. Let’s take a sneak peek at how the market unfolds in 2023 and what are some of the path-breaking customer loyalty trends that brands will adhere to.

1. The coming-of-age: Digital wallets

Digital payment solutions have evolved in an increasing variety of ways. India’s revolutionary demonetization drive backed by the COVID-19 pandemic’s cautionary advice on digital payment methods has completely metamorphized the way people pay while shopping, not just in India but across the world. Today, 9 out of 10 Americans use some form of digital payment.

McKinsey’s recent survey also predicts that consumers are expected to have at least three or more digital wallets in the coming years. This will seamlessly pave the way for loyalty marketers to incorporate BNPL (buy now, pay later) option in every brand’s strategy. Customers are more at ease to shop and opt for those brands that enable digital wallet solutions. Digital wallets not just offer the option to pay but also integrate customers’ reward points and offer benefits in real time.

2. Gamifying for an immersive customer engagement

Gamification has been a raging trend in 2022, so what’s brewing in 2023? Well for starters, gamification is heavily incorporated by sectors and industries of different interests. Right from the food delivery app you order food from to the luxury holiday you booked on your wedding anniversary, gamification hooks customers like no other. Knowing that reality and virtual worlds are blending to create newer opportunities today, gamification will play a key role in a brand’s business and marketing strategy in order to stay updated with the ‘meta’ world.

Come 2023 and gamification will expand to more sectors, including personalized games for customers to create an immersive shopping experience that engages well with the customers. Many companies have already started foraying into technological advancements to personalize a customer’s journey using gamification as a crucial element. It’s about time that companies need to gamify their App in order to engage better with their customers and ensure retention and stickiness to their brand.

Chek out Capillary’s Loyalty+

3. The advent of Intelligent Brick and Mortar Stores

An interesting fact to be noted was if COVID-19 pandemic closed the doors of offline shops, then many new offline stores were also open. Post-pandemic, the never-ending debate of how online will supersede offline shopping finally came to a pause this year. 2023 will witness brick-and-mortar stores adopting intelligent functionality catering to emerging omnichannel customers.

Enough evidence and data have been collected that clearly point towards how an offline store shopper will be meeting different channels and touchpoints of a brand to finally make an informed purchasing decision. It is thus inevitable for brands to create a seamless connection and interaction between all these channels (including the brick-and-mortar store). Physical stores are also focussing on speed and convenience thereby offering BOPIS (buy online, pick up in-store) and curbside pickup options to customers.

4. Remodeled Consumer Behaviour

The APAC region clearly shows its love for customer loyalty programs with a whopping 92% of customers showing a willingness to shop with a brand that offers a loyalty program. Changing consumer behavior has indeed become a constant post COVID-19 pandemic.

Customers are literally steering the wheel of the brand’s vehicle by expressing their needs and wants and also what are their expectations from a brand. Brands thus need to focus on delivering value and convenience to their customers by simplifying their reward offers and solving customers’ real pain points. In a revealing study, customers have also opined on how they perceive a brand by looking at how a brand treats its customers. Brands must sensitize towards customer sentiments and accordingly roll out their business strategies in order to establish a trust-based relationship with their customers. Some thought-provoking stats here:

84% think about how you treat customers
70% want to know you treat employees well
50% will be scrutinizing your environmental practices
47% consider action on economic injustice important
41% rate you on how involved you are in the community

5. Guarding Data Privacy with value-driven Personalization

Data privacy is big and holds utmost importance to customers across the globe. In a time where countries are emerging with stringent data privacy laws to safeguard their people’s data, customers too are being vigil on whom to share their personal data with. Brands thus need to build a culture of strong ethos and entrust their loyal customers with safety practices that ensure the collected data is used to better overall shopping experience of their customers.

When customers are offered value-driven personalized benefits and services that enable a smooth shopping experience, their loyalty too will last for long. Sending the right campaign at the right time to the right customer is the key to building this relationship. In fact, many global brands like Lululemon have been able to build their own brand community by strengthening customer loyalty and creating brand ambassadors. All this by enabling customer data sets with value-driven personalization.
Speak to a Loyalty Expert and see how Capillary’s SaaS platform can help you deliver excellent loyalty programs for your brand.

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