"Building Main Street, not Wall Street" -- The importance of loyalty programs

Albert Szent-Gyorgyi once said, "Discovery is seeing what everybody else has seen, and thinking what nobody else has thought."Communities and their business base must view the world of retail and commerce in a slightly different way in order to survive in the new economy that has been brought on by COVID. Regardless on where we stand on issues related to COVID, the fact is that it has permanently altered the business landscape. How we respond to these changes as a community and business will in fact determine if we thrive, or simply survive.Loyalty programs are criticalOne of the major retail shifts occurring right before our eyes is in the consumer loyalty arena. This is a shift where local communities and their business base can lead the charge by building both business based and community wide retail loyalty programs. In fact, I will take it one step further, as we move into the future, those communities and businesses not employing loyalty or membership programs may as well not be in the game.I recently read a great business loyalty and membership piece from Clarus Commerce. This piece included a recent survey regarding loyalty as viewed through the lens of shoppers and consumers. The numbers were astounding when you drill down into what this can mean for local communities and businesses. As the numbers show, this is a great opportunity, however it is a two-edged sword. This also shows the very real possibility that local businesses and communities can be completely left behind if they don't act on these very telling numbers. Let's take a look at what this Clarus Commerce survey revealed:1. Nearly 70 percent of consumers agree their loyalty is more difficult for a retailer to maintain than ever before.2. 66 percent of consumers currently belong to a premium loyalty program.3. 69 percent of current premium loyalty members plan to join additional programs in the future.4. 70 percent of consumers would be willing to join a premium loyalty program if their favorite retailers offered them and the benefits were valuable to them.5. 66 percent of consumers say free shipping is a perk that motivates them to join premium loyalty programs.6. 60 percent of consumers say that instant discounts are a perk that motivates them to join premium loyalty programs.7. 94 percent of premium loyalty members shop with that retailer at least once a month.8. 88 percent of consumers who are satisfied with the special benefits offered by a retailer's premium loyalty program will likely choose that retailer over a competitor that is offering a lower price.9. 31percent of consumers say they have yet to join a premium loyalty program because the retailers they shop with don't offer them.Communities can help local businessesFor a community or business to build a loyalty program, it takes planning and thought. Benjamin Franklin said, "fail to plan, plan to fail." This is very true when it comes to loyalty programs. One may wonder why I keep mentioning communities in this discussion when it seems this should be on the backs of the individual businesses to build their loyalty base. In smaller local communities, the local business base is the backbone of the community. Oftentimes, businesses by themselves don't have the scale to go it alone. This is where communities can band together to build a program that encompasses an entire downtown or local area. These are in fact the most successful local community programs because they now draw from a much larger base of consumers. I am aware of several community-wide loyalty type programs that are very powerful and effective, no community or business needs to recreate the wheel. The bottom-line is simple: building loyalty can only aid your community and each individual business in it. If you fail to plan as Mr. Franklin mentioned, you are planning to fail. Don't let your community fail, start planning today.John A. Newby, author of the "Building Main Street, Not Wall Street " column dedicated to assisting communities and local media companies combine synergies allowing them to not just survive, but thrive in a world where truly-local is lost to Amazon, Wall Street chains and others. His email is john@360MediaAlliance.net.