By: Brent Harms

Every 2 years Colloquy does an extensive survey regarding loyalty programs.  I was searching for other sources of research to learn more.  Over the next few blogs I will share interesting tidbits from a survey that was done in late 2009.  Isle Ventures completed a survey to understand consumer preferences about loyalty programs.  There were 482 respondents in a stratified random sample that was gender, age and geographically balanced.    Here is what was learned:

Loyalty Program Participation

·         On average, the respondents belonged to 5.8 loyalty programs.

·         Men are almost twice as likely not to belong to a loyalty program compared to women.

·         Those who belong to 15+ loyalty programs are most frequently in the 45 – 54 age range.

Loyalty Cards

·         They carried 2.3 cards.

·         10% of the members won’t carry any cards, but always carry their driver’s license.

·         61% of members have forgotten their loyalty card when shopping.

·         23% are unwilling to verbally share phone number to get points if they forget their loyalty card.

I know from personal experience it is hard to carry all the cards and I usually forget to grab the right card when I head out shopping.  One challenge retailers face is to make participation in loyalty programs as easy as possible for members.  I would love to hear your stories about loyalty cards, so please comment.

Check back next week for more tidbits from this study – data regarding lost cards and card replacement.