Restaurants scramble to roll out loyalty programs: Hardee’s, IHOP, and Carl’s Jr. are the latest chains to leverage loyalty to offer personalized experiences and deepen relationships with consumers.

On this episode of Brand Anatomy, where we get exclusive looks inside leading brands, Briefings director Jeremy Goldman sits down with Dorothy Dowling, CMO of Best Western, to discuss the changing needs of today’s travelers given rising inflation and pent-up post-pandemic demand, and the importance of loyalty programs to better serve customers.

On today's episode, we discuss what the direct-to-consumer (D2C) playbook 2.0 contains, which D2C players are the ones to watch, and which spaces are ripe for D2C disruption. We then talk about what people currently expect from a loyalty program, how much context really matters, and how to avoid treating customers like data points. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.

Improving customer relationships using loyalty programs is a top priority for brands: 52% of executive marketing and ecommerce respondents plan to launch or expand their brands’ loyalty programs, per a CommerceX and CommX survey. What this means for Capital One: Extending its relationship with Kohl’s can help sustain Capital One’s volume growth.

All the cards also simplify qualifying for higher tiers of the brand’s loyalty program and using points. Why it’s worth watching: The cards offer three main benefits that can help the portfolio stand out and boost volume for Chase. Rebounding travel will be a boon to popular hotel co-brand cards, but they face tighter competition from premium and ultra-premium general-purpose cards.

But we assigned points to retailers that offered these features outside of paid memberships as well, either through free loyalty programs (as Nike did) or to the general public (as with Nordstrom). Features linked to usage of retailer credit cards were excluded. Key Findings:.

SuperNet also processes transactions for the dispensaries and offers a loyalty program. POSabit. The Washington-based fintech offers point-of-sale hardware and software for cannabis dispensaries. POSabit recently expanded into several states, including Georgia, Texas, and West Virginia.

Retail loyalty programs—the most prevalent type in consumers’ wallets—help brands develop lasting customer relationships through easy, accessible, and appealing incentives. Co-brand credit cards—issued as partnerships between major brands, banks, and card networks— have long been a key piece of that puzzle.

Historically, there was a payments function that would let you enter your user loyalty program to get extra points. It’s great if you find out about it at checkout, but as a user, is that going to influence you when you find it at the end of the journey? It's simply too late.

Lowe’s efforts to attract more home professionals with a new loyalty program and perks such as reserved parking are paying off. Sales from home professionals grew 23% during Q4. Lowe’s has historically drawn 20% to 25% of its total sales from pros, compared with The Home Depot, which gets about 50% of its sales from them, according to CNBC.

Both options enable Amazon to gather data about shoppers who are not members of the Amazon Prime loyalty program. Amazon’s grocery portfolio: Amazon Fresh is the fastest-growing piece of Amazon’s physical store portfolio. The retailer operates over 600 physical stores in North America—511 of which are Whole Foods Market stores, per its latest filing.

Loblaw Media sells advertising that can reach the more than 18 million members of its PC Optimum loyalty program, the largest retailer-led one in the country. Ad units include banner ads and sponsored listings triggered by in-app search. Promotional offers like discounts and free delivery drive many of the banner ads, which run when the app is opened.

Offering a loyalty program is an effective way for retailers to acquire new customers, but it also fosters relationships for years to come. Setting up the framework, however, can be challenging—especially if retailers decide to handle everything in-house.

On today's episode, we discuss data’s role in customer experience (CX), how the pandemic changed the way companies approach customers, and how to measure CX ROI. We then talk about the best loyalty programs in the US, shifting to contactless payments, and whether Gen Z will recover from the pandemic-induced recession. Tune in to the discussion with eMarketer principal analyst at Insider Intelligence Jeremy Goldman.

Retailers and delivery services should include coupons and rewards offerings regardless of whether they are a part of a premium membership or free loyalty program. Target offered the most in-demand set of membership and account features. With five of the six features in the category, the retailer scored 91 of 100 points.