Boost member spending with expanded payment options

As the sponsor of a loyalty program, you must understand your members' customer journey from beginning to end. You need to know what incentives motivate members to buy from your brand and what obstacles prevent them from completing their purchase. Members place a high value on flexibility in how they pay. According to e-commerce payment provider PPRO, 42% of U.S. shoppers will cancel a purchase if their preferred payment method is not available. Brands that embrace their members' desire for flexible payment options are more likely to drive real member loyalty and, ultimately, sales.

Strategy

Boost member spending by providing expanded payment options.

Here’s the scenario: Fancy Fries is launching a Fancy Fries loyalty card. To promote the card, Fancy Fries plans to award three points for every dollar spent on it (in contrast to the one point for other payment types). Fancy Fries wants to make this a permanent feature of their loyalty program. Let’s look at how this is done in the SessionM platform.

SessionM solution

The SessionM loyalty platform enables you to forge stronger, more loyal and more profitable relationships with your members. The platform provides an integrated set of capabilities - including data management, loyalty management, offer management, campaign orchestration, and analytics & optimization - that enable you to build compelling member loyalty programs.

Key modules

The loyalty program described in this article uses the following modules:

Loyalty Programs

  • Point banking
  • Rewards for high value behaviors, advocacy and spend
  • Status and tiering rules plus outcomes
  • Benefits management with frictionless redemption
  • Extensive tracking on point liabilities

Campaign
Orchestration

  • Manage scheduled and behaviorally triggered campaigns across email, push, SMS, digital channels
  • Real-time interaction management
  • Rules-based promotions
  • Centralized and actionable campaign analytics

See SessionM Features for a full discussion of SessionM platform features and functions.

Implementation workflow

The following procedure describes the workflow for implementing the loyalty program described in this article. The procedure captures the workflow at a high-level, providing you with a sense of the scope involved in implementing this program in the SessionM platform.

Take note

As you follow this workflow, note that this strategy uses a specific brand card as the payment type. You can define any number of payment types within the SessionM platform. Consult with your SessionM delivery team about the types of payments that you want to be available to your members. During system implementation, the delivery team can make the configuration changes to support your list of payment types.

For step-by-step procedures for implementing the functionality in a SessionM module, see the Procedures section in the SessionM Help Center.

Step 1. Existing loyalty program in place

Assume that Fancy Fries has a loyalty program with a single tier. A purchase rule awards 1 point for each dollar spent, regardless of the payment type.

Step 2. Economy Rules module: Define purchase rule based on payment type

You now want to expand the program by adding a purchase rule that awards 2 additional points when the payment type is the Fancy Fries loyalty card.

  • Select the loyalty program.

  • Define the purchase event:

    • In the Tier Purchase Event section, select "Customer must make a purchase."

    • Add a constraint to the purchase event that limits the qualifying payment type to the Fancy Fries card.

    • Define the outcome for the purchase event: Select "Points (Variable)" and set it to "Award points based on eligible spend". Award 2 points for each dollar spent.

  • Save the rule.

The purchase rule is now active in your loyalty program. Purchases made with a Fancy Fries card now earna total of 3 points for each dollar spent. Other payment types continue to earn 1 point for each dollar spent.

Step 3. Campaigns module: Define a messaging campaign that informs members of new payment type

  • Name the campaign and set its runtime to encapsulate when the email is sent. The start date/time should be set to begin before the message send time, for example, "10/01/2023 12:00 am". Similarly, the campaign's end date/time should occur after the message's send time, say "10/01/2023 11:59pm."

  • Use the default targeting of all loyalty program members.

  • Define the messaging for the campaign. Set up an external message with a scheduled delivery method. Set the delivery date/time to "10am on 10/01/2023". Select a message provider and template for the email message. This links the SessionM message to an email template within an external email service provider.

  • Now you can enhance the external message, an email, with content available from the Creative tab of the External Message page. Select the email service provider and an associated template.

  • Launch the campaign. An email announcing the new benefit is sent to all loyalty program members at the specified time.

Analysis

Successful loyalty programs adapt and evolve. It’s crucial to evaluate your program to determine where it is performing well and where it needs to improve. Built on a series of intuitive dashboards, the SessionM Insights reporting & analysis tool enables you to understand program performance by measuring key performance indicators such as customer spend and customer frequency.

This strategy features payment types. Using the Transactions tab in Insights, you can track sales and transaction counts by payment type.

For detailed information on SessionM Insight features and functionality, see About Insights in the SessionM Help Center.

Key takeaways

Support flexible payment types

Members place a high value on flexibility in how they pay. Brands that embrace their members' desire for flexible payment options are more likely to drive real member loyalty and, ultimately, sales. Expanding the payment options available to your members deepens engagement with existing members and makes your program more appealing to an even wider audience of potential members.

Make rules permanent program features or limit them to campaigns

This strategy uses purchase rules embedded in the tier to award points based on the payment type. Placing the rules in a tier makes the outcome associated with the rule a permanent feature of the loyalty program. An alternative approach would be to run a promotional campaign where the outcome is provided for a specific length of time, for example, a month. See Award triple points for self-service orders for an example of a strategy that uses a promotional campaign to provide a short-term benefit to your loyalty program members.