Clear Trend Toward Value Highlights Top 10 Customer Loyalty Retailers

A clear trend toward value highlights the Top 10 (non-grocery) customer loyalty retailers, according to inMarket’s Spring 2017 Loyalty Report.

“There appears to be a clear trend toward value in the Top 10,” Dave Heinzinger, vice president, communications, inMarket, explained to Loyalty360. “Walmart is leading the pack, but the dollar chains are also experiencing above average loyalty right now. We recently did a study on millennial shopping habits and it turns out that they’re a very frugal generation. Now that millennials make up the prime spending 18-35 demographic, perhaps that’s driving discount store loyalty?” 

Top 10 Retailers Based on Customer Loyalty:

  1. Walmart
  2. Fry’s Electronics
  3. Dollar General
  4. Fred Meyer Jewelers
  5. Target
  6. Family Dollar
  7. 99 Cents Only
  8. Dollar Tree
  9. The Home Depot
  10. Lowe’s
Here are the Bottom 10 retailers based on Customer Loyalty (These retailers struggled to retain customers and suffered from below-average customer loyalty in Spring 2017, based on inMarket location data)
  1. Nine West
  2. Crocs
  3. Toys R Us
  4. Kitchen Collection
  5. Disney Store
  6. Wet Seal
  7. Bebe
  8. Gap
  9. H&M
  10. American Eagle Outfitters
Eight out of the bottom 10 retailers for customer loyalty are either closing stores, halting expansion, or laying off employees in 2017, the report notes.  While Nine West hasn’t announced any store closures yet, its financial woes have been widely reported. Based on the Spring 2017 data, inMarket predicts that Nine West will announce store closures before the end of the calendar year.

“Regarding the bottom 10, you’ll notice the opposite: Mall-based retailers that tend to charge full price,” Heinzinger added. “Combine that with our current desire for value and the increasing competition online, and those could be factors causing retention issues at the bottom 10 retailers.” 

inMarket analyzed location trends from more than 50 million mobile devices per month.

In the Spring 2017 Loyalty Report, inMarket ranked non-grocery retailers based on customer loyalty from January through May 2017. Each retailer was assigned a loyalty score, which is determined by repeat device visitation and is normalized for comparability. For example, a retailer with 1,000,000 visits from 500,000 devices would have a loyalty score of 2, whereas a retailer with 10,000 visits from 4,000 devices would have a loyalty score of 2.5. Note: The average loyalty score for all nongrocery retailers in Spring 2017 was 1.45.

“Based on the Spring 2017 foot traffic data, we wouldn’t be surprised to learn about store expansions from Fry’s Electronics or Fred Meyer Jewelers before the end of the year,” the report says.

Chirpify CEO Chris Teso told Loyalty360 that, by focusing on customer retention, brands save on customer acquisition costs and reap the rewards that loyal customers bring as they are more likely to shop more often, and spend more per shop with the brands to which they feel most loyal.

“At Chirpify, we have found that companies that pair ease of engagement and ease of doing business with their loyalty programs fare even better,” Teso added. “For example, one sporting goods retailer whose loyalty program members are connected to the brand via social media buy twice as frequently as non-connected members.”

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