Loyalty rewards and incentives have been an adoption in today’s society that has helped both brick mortar e-commerce sites to retain customers and drive down acquisition costs by rewarding them for their loyalty towards their brand. It is a strategy that has been proven to be effective and some carry out this incentive in form of raffle draws and others by selecting their best customer for a particular week, depending on what works best for them.
Customer loyalty programs are believed to have started in the 18th century with a strategy called “premium marketing” or “spend and get”. It was a strategy that saw American retailers give their customers copper tokens for purchases, this token can later be redeemed for products on future purchases. This strategy remained popular throughout the 19th century and paved the way for the loyalty rewards being enjoyed today.
Introduction Of Stamps as Loyalty Rewards
It quickly became established among retailers that copper tokens were an expensive method of rewarding customers and stamps was introduced as a replacement for coins in loyalty rewards in the late 19th century. Retailers started awarding the green shield stamp to customers for purchases which could later be redeemed for catalog products.
Modern Loyalty Programs Became a Thing
At a certain point in the early 1900s, individual brands and retailers started introducing their ways of engaging customers. Box Tops were known to be one of the brand-specific programs. They were coupons printed directly to product packages and could later be redeemed for premiums or rewards.
Frequent Fliers, one of the most well-known loyalty programs ever created, was introduced in the late 1900s. Frequent Fliers was often regarded as the first full-scale loyalty program of the modern era and American Airlines launched their Frequent Flier program in 1981. This program changed the game for customer loyalty and currently boasts over 50 million members in the revamped AAdvantage program.
