Nearly three-quarters of Italians are enrolled in a loyalty programme with at least one retailer (compared to 66% in the EU), according to a global survey conducted by Nielsen with consumers in 63 countries.
Close to half (44%) are members of between two and five retail loyalty programmes, while 17% are registered in more than six.
According to Nielsen Italia CEO, Giovanni Fantasia, the personalisation of the offer is key to the future of loyalty programmes especially in Italy, where there is still a large growth potential in this area. He highlights the need of building a personal relationship with the customer, using methods such as social media.
"Today the loyalty card is a vital tool for the store, either physical or virtual. It is therefore necessary to carry out marketing actions that differentiate the content of the individual initiatives in order not to lose effectiveness", explained Fantasia.
He said that monetary compensation can no longer be considered the main driver, so it is necessary to consider promoting engaging projects, such as those involving customers in charitable or green initiatives.
More than 60% of Italian consumers said they prefer to shop at stores that offer loyalty cards, all else being equal. For 60% the loyalty programme is their main reason to continue to visit the store, while 55% spend larger sums of money at stores with such programmes.
The physical loyalty card is used by 79% of consumers during purchase (compared to 69% in the EU). However, Italy trails other European countries in the use of e-commerce sites, as only 19% of those polled claimed to have a digital account (compared to 31% in Spain, 28% in the UK and 27% in France). Fifteen percent of Italians use retailer’s apps on their smartphone or tablet.
© 2016 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Branislav Pekic. To subscribe to ESM: The European Supermarket Magazine, click here.
