We recently polled more than 13,000 people in the UK on their ideal rewards for brand loyalty, or moving to a new supplier. The results confirmed what many Love2shop customers have been saying for years – people really do love choice, and they love gift cards.
We ran two polls, across a few months, asking people to pick their ideal loyalty prize, and their ideal sign-up gift, from a selection of popular rewards.*
Both of our polls showed a big preference for gift cards and discounts. But even with discounts on the menu, gift cards comfortably pulled ahead of other rewards in both surveys.
The results are below:
The ideal loyalty reward
Question: If a company offered you a gift for being a loyal customer, which gift would you prefer?
Results:
| A discount on your next purchase | 13.1% |
| A gift card for a retailer of your choice | 76.6% |
| VIP experiences | 4.7% |
| An upgraded membership | 1.3% |
| Merchandise | 4.3% |
10,781 total answers
The ideal new customer reward
Question: Which of the follow is most likely to motivate you to switch to a new supplier of broadband, banking, utilities, or insurance?
Results:
| A discount off your next bill | 24.9% |
| A gift card for a retailer of your choice | 48.8% |
| A dining out voucher | 7.2% |
| A free takeaway | 6.6% |
| A chance to win a holiday | 8.9% |
| Attraction tickets | 3.6% |
3,264 total answers
What it could mean for you
The results vary between acquiring and keeping customers, but a gift card that gives someone a choice of retailer has come out clear winner on both polls. Even when options like discounts, holidays, and meals are on the agenda.
We can only make inferences on what that means for the public at large, but as we’ve pointed out before, the choice of retailer is a big part of the lure of the gift card. People like to be empowered to make their own choices, which may also explain why discounts did well. Ultimately that’s a bit of extra cash that consumers can choose how to spend.
Huge sums of time and money are invested every year on discounts, VIP experiences, or free takeaways. It’s possible that, while those rewards are being gratefully received by the public, customers would prefer to make their own choice with a gift card.
Far be it from us to tell you about your own customers, but the data speaks for itself, and speaks in plain terms. It’s plausible that you could be simplifying your rewards, saving money on them, and getting better results, by switching to gift cards or e-gift cards.
At the very least, there’s a strong case for re-examining what your company is offering for loyalty and acquisition if it’s not gift cards.
What’s next?
We’re still talking to the public every day on what they want most. Right now we’re asking about what they’d like as a reward from their company at Christmas. And so far, the Christmas party is out and a choice-driven gift card is in. We’ll have more updates on that soon, but for now, we’re here if you want to ask any questions. Feel free to get in touch if you want to talk about finding, and keeping, more customers for your business.
*These polls were conducted on more than 13,000 recipients of a Love2shop e-Gift Card over a seven-week period in 2021. If you’d like any more details on the polls, or even to talk about suggesting a question, get in touch. We’d be happy to talk.
