Bon-Ton Stores Expands Loyalty Program, Deepens Customer Engagement

Opening up a loyalty program to all customers is crucial to sparking customer engagement.

Officials at The Bon-Ton Stores realized this point and factored that rationale into their expanded loyalty program known as LoveStyle Rewards.

Shoppers can now earn rewards any way they pay when they shop at Bon-Ton Stores. In addition to Bon-Ton’s current YOUR REWARDS proprietary credit card and loyalty program, customers paying with any other tender can now earn Reward Cards. With the new LoveStyle Rewards program, a customer who spends $200 with a third-party credit card, cash, check, or gift card, will receive a $10 LoveStyle Rewards Card. Customers who spend $200 with a YOUR REWARDS Credit Card will receive a $20 Rewards Card.

“Given how increasingly critical it is to drive customer engagement, we recognized that all customers should have the opportunity to participate in a loyalty program,” Luis Fernandez, Chief Marketing Officer for The Bon-Ton Stores, told Loyalty360. 

The Bon-Ton Stores, Inc. operates Bon-Ton, Boston Store, Bergner’s, Carson's, Elder-Beerman, Herberger’s, and Younkers stores.

Members may earn “Double It” Rewards or earn “Bonus Rewards” based on featured categories or special events throughout the year. Customers can also “stack” their Rewards Cards for every $50 a customer spends. Rewards can be earned on purchases made in-store at any of the Bon-Ton family of stores, or online at one of the seven company websites.

“We’ve carried over several innovative elements from our main Your Rewards loyalty program into our new LoveStyleRewards program,” Fernandez explained. “Specifically, customers who purchase across channels or across categories will earn additional rewards automatically. This underlying, continuous rewards process is critical to deepening customer engagement.”

Customers can sign up for LoveStyle Rewards both in-store and online by simply providing a name, phone number, and email address. Rewards are delivered monthly via email.

“We conduct regular market research, including focus groups,” Fernandez added. “From our research, we identified how important it was to provide loyalty program options for all customers.”

Fernandez believes that the company’s customer experience initiatives are appropriate for its customer base.

“We gauge customer reaction to all our CRM activities very carefully,” he explained. “Our focus is on activities that deepen their engagement. We’ve found that straightforward, compelling tactics can be extremely effective.” 

Customer loyalty, for Bon-Ton Stores, is about engagement, “pure and simple,” Hernandez said.

“We want to be at the top of their consideration set always,” he explained. “As a department store business, we’ve always had a rich relationship with our customers. As customer shopping behaviors are evolving more quickly, we have increased our focus on CRM across all channels and media.”

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