Businesses have been transforming their customer relationship strategies across the globe owing to the digital transformation. Hence, the market for loyalty programs has been consistently evolving, giving rise to innovative solutions. According to Mordor Intelligence's study, the APAC loyalty management market was worth USD 946 million in 2020 and is predicted to expand to USD 3643 million by 2026, an almost fourfold increase in just six years. Both, the customers as well as the companies seem to be benefitting from these loyalty programs.
Loyalty programs have evolved significantly since the initiation of their use. The loyalty programs started out as generic rewarding mechanisms to gain increased purchasing frequency and value from the company’s most loyal customers. Now loyalty programs are about personalisation, utilising data-driven insights to first map a user persona, then tailor the rewarding mechanisms and touchpoints in accordance to people’s purchase behaviour. This is just one of the ways in which loyalty programs have evolved over the decades. This report discusses other aspects of this evolution with respect to the design of the loyalty programs, their redemption requirements, level of interaction with consumers and the dynamic role of technology.