Study: Half of loyalty club members want retail redemption options

According to The Value of Redemption study from the Collinson Group, 55% of airline club members and 57% of hotel club members want the option to redeem their points with favorite retailers.

Researchers found that overall 65% of consumers surveyed want additional points redemption options, and that nearly half (45%) see points programs that only allow for points to accumulate for future flights or hotel stays as ‘dated’.

“These findings show that travel loyalty program providers must extend their member engagement capabilities so they can cater for the changing and ever increasing expectations of their members. Members want their programs to provide them with experiences and rewards that suit their lifestyle so it’s imperative that loyalty program providers have an ecosystem that allows for increased engagement touch-points. This is a huge opportunity for brands, as we all look to intertwine more tightly to our member’s everyday lifestyles,” said Guy Deslandes, E-commerce Sales Director, Collinson Latitude, part of Collinson Group.

Other interesting findings from the report include:

• 40% say the value of a loyalty program decreases if they can’t redeem points in retail stores
• 31% say they ‘regularly redeem’ points on programs’ non-core inventory
• 48% say ‘non-core inventory’ has brought them back to a rewards program
• 61% of airline rewards programs who bought a ‘non-core good’ – like electronics – went on to also purchase a future flight
• 56% of hotel rewards program members did the same