Loyalty360 Reads: March 19th, 2019

Customer Experience
 
Amazon Experiments with New Pick-Up/Delivery Service at Whole Foods
Whole Foods locations in the Dallas-Fort Worth will host a new Amazon pick-up and delivery service. This is not the same as the locker service, which allowed only three days to pick up a package (this service allows up to 15). Further, employees will be able to return items to these locations, and employees will handle the packaging.
 
Amazon is figuring out new ways to get the most value from the physical Whole Foods stores that it has acquired. This should also boost in-store grocery sales. Even though many perceive Whole Foods groceries as too costly, they’re likely to grab a couple items, if they’re already in the building.
 
The Role of Delivery in Customer Loyalty
 
Quality delivery service plays a dramatic role in determining whether or not customers will give a brand loyalty. “According to recent MetaPack research of more than 3,500 consumers in North America and Europe, if retailers get the basics right, enable customers to curate their own deliveries, and meet their needs and interests quickly, customers will reward them with long-term commitment and repeat orders.” This is in keeping with what Loyalty360 hears from industry experts; you must meet the customers where they are, which is, increasingly, their homes.
 
Citi Ditches Its Planned Cryptocurrency
Citigroup first began testing Citicoin back in 2015. The brand has recently announced that it is scrapping any plans to launch a cryptocurrency of its own. Gulru Atak, Citigroup’s Global Head of Innovation for Treasury and Trade Solutions, says, “Based on that experiment, we actually decided to make meaningful improvements in the existing rails by leveraging the payments ecosystem, and within that ecosystem, we are considering the fintechs as well or the regulators around the world as well, including SWIFT.” JP Morgan is moving forward with its cryptocurrency, but whether crypto is part of the future of digital payments or just a weird phase remains anyone’s guess.
 
Data
 
OpenTable Asserts Control of Restaurant Data
The reservation service “is barring restaurants from sharing data with rival booking services without its permission, intensifying a fight for control of the information diners disclose when they make reservations online.” This issue should be of great interest to anyone in the loyalty space, as some are accusing OpenTable of making this move for the sole purpose of squeezing out the competition. That makes it an unusual case in which preventing data sales could lead to negative brand perception. We’ve gotten used to the opposite. As always, transparency enables trust.
 
Programs
Starbucks Revamps Its Loyalty Program
From CNBC: “As Starbucks prepares to launch delivery to a quarter of its stores by the spring with UberEats, it’s working to add delivery orders as another capability of the Rewards app.” The brand has been largely successful in getting a broad membership through its app. The company now hopes that expanding its rewards offerings will further increase membership as it rolls out its delivery service. As the article mentions, Starbucks has dominated its market in mobile loyalty, so these expansions are worth watching.
 

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