According to the Brazilian Association of Companies in the Loyalty Market (ABEMF), registrations into Brazilian loyalty programs reached 89.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2016, showing a 17% increase in comparison with the same period of the prior year.
The study was conducted on Brazil’s top six loyalty program companies: Dotz, Grupo LTM, Multiplus, Netpoints, Smiles and TudoAzul. The study also shows not only 53.8 billion points issued and 43.5 billion redeemed, but also an 8.4% increase in said companies’ turnover, reaching a whopping $478.6 million.
However, Roberto Medeiros, president of ABEMF thinks the industry still faces “several challenges; the main one involves the adhesion of more and more participants, a recurring fact due to the growth in the volume of registrations in the programs demonstrated by our indicators,” adding that “loyalty program penetration margin is still low in the country, so we constantly invest in dissemination, technology and partnerships, with the goal of providing the best customer experience.”
On the bright side, the success of such programs has attracted more industry giants to follow suit. Take Samsung for example. The tech giant created a country-specific program dubbed “Samsung Club” that offers its customers a unique point-redemption system, where points are depleted, but accumulated to promote customers to higher levels of loyalty prizes.
Andrea Mello, Director of Corporate Marketing and Consumer Electronics in Samsung Brazil reported that the company wants to “provide an experience that goes beyond the conventional, that delivers more than the consumer expects.” He also reported that “Samsung’s challenge has been to go further and with Samsung Club we have achieved this goal by enhancing the consumer with unique experiences and benefits.”
A study in 2015 concluded that loyalty program members are mostly interested in product discounts, free shipping and of course, free products or cashbacks.
While the approach has been met with great success thus far, ABEMF president reports that “Our goal is for more and more people to start using loyalty programs by accumulating and redeeming points or miles. The offering of products and services is the best way for the participant to see value in this type of program, which allows the development of the entire market.”
