A Guide to Digital Loyalty Apps

Digital loyalty apps are one of the best tools you have to incentivise customers to return to your business. They can be used to help keep your customers loyal by offering rewards for repeat purchases, and serve as the backbone of your loyalty programme. Knowing exactly how they can be best utilised is an absolute must. 

So what are their key features, and how can you benefit the most from developing one? Here at ADAMAPP, we’ve put this guide together to walk you through everything you need to know. 

Loyalty App Design Features

At a base level, most loyalty apps allow customers to redeem points they accrued by shopping in your store, in return for discounts, free products, or insider perks. 52% of Americans would join the loyalty program of a brand they made frequent purchases from, so it’s essential that your app is easy to use, download, and navigate if you want your business to capitalise on this. 

There are a few key features that great loyalty apps share, including:

• Loyalty ‘reward points’ tracker 
• Store locator 
• Personalised offers
• Simple navigation
• Coupons
• Robust data encryption 
• Social sharing 
• Push notifications
• Additional loyalty points exclusive to the app

A study by Bond found that 95% of consumers would be willing to engage with a loyalty program that utilised emergent technology like AI, VR, smart devices, and chatbots. There is so much potential when it comes to Loyalty card apps, and now is the perfect time to begin developing or advancing one you have in the pipeline. 

Benefits of Digital Loyalty Schemes

Loyalty schemes benefit both customers and businesses alike. Customers feel like they’re earning something tangible, while businesses benefit from those customers returning week after week. Loyalty apps allow you to create purely digital experiences for your customers, making your loyalty programme much easier to access. 

Your loyalty programme is an essential part of keeping your customers on side, but why is it so valuable? This customer retention strategy has many advantages and benefits, so let's look at the best examples.               

Advantages of Loyalty Programs for Customers

A good loyalty programme needs to focus on retaining your customers and incentivising them to choose your business over your competitors. Research by ​​Frederick Reichheld of Bain & Company found that in financial services increasing customer retention rates by 5% increased profits by 25%. Therefore, it’s incredibly important that the benefits of your loyalty scheme are well received by your customers if you want to make sure they stick around. 

Here are just a few advantages of loyalty programs that will keep your customers coming back:

• Rewarded for supporting a business
• Save money 
• Earn perks and receive“VIP” treatment
• Better influence a business with your purchases
• An all-in-one app for shopping and spending your rewards
• An improved customer experience

How Do Loyalty Programs Benefit Companies?

Loyalty programmes have far-reaching benefits for companies. 60% of customers who consider themselves loyal to the brand will share that brand with their friends and family, while 39.4% of customers will spend more on a product, even if there’s a cheaper alternative elsewhere. The ability to tap into this loyal customer base is extremely important and can benefit your company in many ways. 

• Retain and attract new customers
• Increase sales
• Improve brand reputation
• Reduce marketing costs associated with attracting new customers
• Get ahead of the competition
• Increase brand relevance
• Incentivise more shopping with rewards
• Discover user trends 

Do Customer Loyalty Programs Really Work?

It's a resounding yes - customer loyalty programmes do work, and they work incredibly well. By increasing customer convenience and offering real incentives, you’ll retain loyal customers and see a real boost to your brand's reputation. 

With that said, that doesn’t mean there aren’t any risks or challenges. Every app requires maintenance, so while you’ll see a boost in profits by retaining loyal customers, you’ll likely take a hit keeping the app up and running. Luckily, 87% of loyalty programme members would accept having details of their activity and behaviour monitored in exchange for personalised rewards. This means you’ll be able to monitor which parts of your app customers are engaging with and thereby ensure optimal efficiency. 

You’ll also need to carefully balance the rewards available to members since too many could lead to your programme damaging company finances. Loyalty programmes should be profitable and boost sales, so any reward that starts costing the company money should obviously be evaluated. 

Loyalty Card Apps for your Business: Create Your Own

With a wide range of products and services, ADAMAPP can offer the expertise to map out your loyalty programme and help you develop your loyalty card app. We’ve guided top brands in creating rewarding loyalty programmes and we’d love to do the same for your company.  

Reach out to us today, and we’ll help show you just how beneficial a good loyalty card app can be for your business.