nine benefits data loyalty

by Tim O’Grady, knowITall Loyalty Systems

What is the one word that can make all the difference to a loyalty program’s success?

Answer: Data…not data for the sake of it, rather data that leads to insights that are actioned for business acceleration.

The following data sources gathered through a loyalty program and the combination of these provides the insights and a powerful opportunity to profitably grow a retail business.

  1. Knowing who your customers are (eg. name, age, gender, postcode etc)
  2. Being able to identify (and greet them personally) in store (eg. pop up at POS with their details)
  3. Being able contact them one-to-one (eg. email, phone, mail)
  4. Knowing how much they are worth to your business (eg. average sale value and lifetime value)
  5. What products do they buy (eg. brands, value, by sku)
  6. When they buy them (eg. seasonal, habitual or spontaneous)
  7. How often they visit (ie. frequency)
  8. When last they visited (ie. recency)
  9. The rewards they have earned and redeemed (eg. loyalty drivers to recognise and reward)

A robust loyalty system can use these data sources in multiple combinations to deploy targeted marketing activities that drive incremental and long-term spend into your retail business.

To illustrate the tips above and how they can be used in practical ways, here are three retail case studies from KnowITall’s loyalty system:

  • Result: Extra spend 
    Campaign: Members’ birthdays were identified and an email campaign was sent out offering a birthday reward.
    Knowing the customer’s birthday (Tip 1) + email (Tip 3) + a birthday reward (Tip 9)
    Results: 51% of members who were sent the birthday voucher, returned to spend the voucher. The voucher value was $10 and the average spend was $29.
  • Result: Increased frequency of visit
    Campaign: New members were identified and sent an email campaign encouraging them to return within a month with a time-limited offer.
    A new member (Tip 1) + email (Tip 3) + a welcome reward (Tip 9)
    Results: 69% of members who redeemed a welcome reward in the month, made a repeat in the subsequent month. When the average frequency of visit is 4 times a year, the program has driven extra visits in a subsequent month adding incremental revenue.
  • Result: Customer win-back
    Campaign: ‘Lapsed’ members were identified and sent a ‘return’ offer.
    Members who had not been instore for 5 months (Tip 8) + email (Tip 3) + offer (Tip 9)
    Results: 43% of campaign emails that were opened were redeemed in store, bringing ‘lapsed customers’ back. Gross sales were 5.2 times than the value of the voucher.

These three simple examples demonstrate how customer value and increased revenue can be created by using more-informed marketing campaigns that use data gathered from loyalty programs.

Setting up your loyalty program to deliver data that is meaningful to drive business growth is where the value is and planning a campaign strategy that is executed consistently can give your retail business every chance of profitable growth.

Are you maximising the value of the data you have on your customers?


For the past 7 years, KnowItAll Loyalty systems has been helping retail businesses design and deploy loyalty programs. They now service close to 300 retail stores (from single store to larger groups) with over 800,000 members enjoying the benefits of simply structured loyalty programs that are profitable to the business and meaningful to customers.

Email tim@knowitall.net.au for a no-obligation chat to find out if a loyalty program can provide valuable data, insights and action for growing your business.