The Loyalty Newswire from The Smart Marketer
From the Editor
Our staff is attending CRMC in Chicago this week, and we can have a full convention report for you when all of it wraps up. Smart Marketer is the principal media sponsor for this annual retail advertising and loyalty convention, and we’ll be absorbing content material, making new mates, and doing interviews with manufacturers on-site.
Now we have two webinars developing in June that it would be best to be a part of:
June 18, 1 pm ET – The Redemption Rethink: Loyalty Have to be Extra Than Automated Reductions, that includes Roger Williams, Head of Marigold’s Loyalty Centre of Excellence (CoE). Register right here.
June 25, 1 pm ET – A brand new CRMC Webinar Sequence that includes Michelle DeStein, Director of Development Advertising and marketing at Bombas, and Kelly Sullivan, Buyer Success Lead at Simon Knowledge. Be part of as they discover how Bombas leverages buyer identification and superior segmentation to construct lasting buyer relationships. Be taught extra and register right here.
There’s just-released analysis accessible from The Level of Loyalty and Auriemma Consulting highlighted on this week’s Publication, plus different necessary international information and updates.
As at all times, we’re right here that can assist you succeed. Tell us how we may help.
Invoice Hanifin, Managing Editor, The Smart Marketer
Quick Takes
Breaking Information & Press Releases
Two New Webinars in June which you can’t miss
June 18, 1 pm ET
- Be part of the Head of Marigold’s Loyalty Centre of Excellence (CoE), Roger Williams, as he shares his perspective on how and why main loyalty manufacturers are benefiting from specializing in key concerns to distinguish their redemption expertise.
- The dialogue is titled The Redemption Rethink: Loyalty Have to be Extra Than Automated Reductions, and we’ll be speaking about why timing, flexibility, and selection matter extra to prospects than factors or perks. Register right here.
June 25, 1 pm ET
- Be part of Michelle DeStein, Director of Development Advertising and marketing at Bombas, and Kelly Sullivan, Buyer Success Lead at Simon Knowledge, on June 25, 1 pm ET, as they discover how Bombas leverages buyer identification and superior segmentation to construct lasting buyer relationships.
- As Bombas shifts focus from buying new prospects to retaining and interesting present ones, they’re delivering considerate, customized experiences that guarantee each interplay, whether or not an abandonment follow-up or an upsell, is well timed and impactful. Be taught extra and register right here.
New Analysis from The Level of Loyalty: For the Love of Cash 2025
Adam Posner, founding father of The Level of Loyalty, has simply launched the 13th version of his anticipated annual analysis examine, For the Love of Cash 2025. The analysis with members of loyalty packages investigated their consciousness in addition to consolation and concern with six methods AI is remodeling their loyalty program expertise.
These included AI delivering extra personalised rewards, customer support reminiscent of 24/7 service brokers and buyer assist, smarter product strategies, and boosting effectivity by automating routine duties. The report reveals that 66% of loyalty program members are conscious of AI getting used to boost their loyalty program expertise. Learn the official press launch right here.
New Analysis from Auriemma Group Exhibits Customers Prioritize Cashback Rewards
Auriemma Group’s newest concern of Cardbeat US confirms that providing compelling rewards considerably impacts cardholder selections, with a transparent choice for flat cashback constructions over tiered choices. The simplicity and predictability of flat cashback resonates strongly with at present’s candidates.
From the press launch, “Simplicity stays paramount even when various reward constructions supply the richest worth proposition,” says Jonathan O’Connor, Senior Supervisor of Analysis at Auriemma Group. “Probably the most enticing packages are people who strike the correct steadiness—providing rewards that aren’t solely compelling, however are additionally clearly understood and simply obtained.”
Has the Good Storm for Airline Loyalty Applications Arrived?
The airline loyalty sport is quickly altering. Reflecting huge modifications in client conduct, aggressive parity, and financial uncertainty, journey shopping for seems to be completely different.
On-line carts are deserted at an alarming price. Customers worth store, erasing model loyalty. And youthful generations don’t belong to loyalty packages in any respect, with solely 65% of Gen Z and Millennials enrolled in airline loyalty packages. Learn why Alviere believes this mixture of things represents the right storm for airline loyalty packages.
Fetch to Accomplice with Greenback Common to Carry Rewards-Based mostly Promoting to DGMN
Fetch, America’s Rewards App, introduced that it’s partnering with Greenback Common Media Community (DGMN), the retail media arm of retail big Greenback Common, to supply DGMN advertisers a brand new, high-performance resolution to succeed in high-intent shoppers.
With this collaboration, manufacturers can leverage Fetch to drive incremental client buying conduct with rewards-based promoting as a part of their DGMN funding. By leveraging the Fetch ecosystem in live performance with DGMN’s in depth attain, Greenback Common supplies model companions the power to seamlessly put their DGMN promoting spend towards Fetch rewards presents.
New Enterprise E-book from Invoice Shander: Stakeholder Whispering
Creator Invoice Shander has solved an important riddle for enterprise leaders. The riddle? uncover precisely and surely what stakeholders really want. His new guide, Stakeholder Whispering: Uncover What Individuals Want Earlier than Doing What They Ask (Wiley, April 29, 2025), explains tips on how to just do that.
For the previous three many years, Invoice has spent daily with shoppers he cares deeply about. That empathy has turn out to be useful time and again, however particularly when his stakeholder/consumer thinks they understand how ahead, however in fact, wants extra readability. In his new guide, he helps you uncover what folks want earlier than they ask. It’s a sensible information to assist leaders and aspiring leaders hone their capacity to listen to what actually issues to the folks they lead.
Visa Clever Commerce Created to Allow AI Commerce for the Future
Think about a future the place an AI agent can store and purchase for you. Visa predicts that AI commerce (commerce powered by an AI agent) goes to remodel the best way shoppers around the globe store, and hopes that its new Visa Clever Commerce shall be on the heart of the motion.
Visa Clever Commerce is a groundbreaking initiative that opens Visa’s funds community to builders and engineers constructing the primary era of true AI commerce. Introduced with AI business leaders together with Anthropic, Microsoft, Mistral AI, OpenAI, Perplexity, Samsung, Stripe and extra, Visa will allow customized, safe AI commerce on a world scale. From searching and choice to buy and post-purchase administration, this system will equip AI brokers to seamlessly handle key phases of the procuring course of. Learn extra about Visa Clever Commerce right here.
The US is Retiring the Penny: What Does This Imply for Retail Pricing Methods?
The US Treasury Division has confirmed it’ll stop placing new pennies into circulation by early 2026. The US is hardly the primary to make this choice, as Canada stopped producing the penny in 2012 and Australia and New Zealand did the identical a decade or extra in the past.
The most important change may be for retailers reasonably than shoppers. Be part of this full of life dialogue to voice your opinion as we ask:
- Will shoppers have a brief reminiscence in regards to the retirement of the penny and 99-cent pricing?
- Will Left Digit Bias imply that pricing will quickly migrate to finish in .95 as an alternative of .99?
- As a retailer, do you dare create twin pricing methods, one every for digital and bodily worlds?
Ebbo and Smart Marketer Launch Newest in Technique Transient Sequence: The New Loyalty Playbook
The most recent Smart Marketer Technique Transient (WMSB) is launched in cooperation with ebbo and is titled “The New Loyalty Playbook.” This primary eBook chapter of three examines an idea that’s core to the way forward for loyalty technique growth – how manufacturers can leverage new loyalty fundamentals to foster significant buyer relationships that stand the check of time.
In case your final purpose is to embed buyer engagement inside a behavior loop that repeatedly delivers satisfaction, obtain “The New Loyalty Playbook” to construct a strong framework for lasting progress and impactful outcomes.
Kiwibank (NZ) is Closing Air New Zealand Airpoints As a consequence of Interchange Rules
Kiwibank is terminating the Airpoints bank card that it has operated for over a decade, notifying cardholders that they are going to be migrated to a brand new Platinum Visa card. The financial institution says right here that the regulatory setting has modified because the launch in 2013, and prices related to reward-based bank cards have risen considerably. Modifications shall be efficient on the finish of October 2025.
The brand new Platinum Visa comes with a variety of advantages that embody built-in abroad journey insurance coverage and, from 1 July 2025, may even embody home journey insurance coverage advantages. The cardboard carries a decrease rate of interest of 12.90% each year.
The takeaway is the impression of interchange regulation on bank card rewards worth propositions. Simon Rowles, Accomplice at Ellipsis & Firm, supplies a whole perspective on these modifications right here.
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