Ai Editorial: Travel brands must get into “purchase frequency” loop

30th November, 2020 

Customer-centric companies are exemplifying exceptional agility. The #Covid19 pandemic is possibly the biggest 'tear-up' of how you do things in such a short space of time based on genuine real-time changing consumer behavior.

A trigger is take-up of services that facilitate #touchless interactions. This preference is seeping into our lives and a major reason behind why certain brands are being preferred today.

Shopping, as an activity, is revolving around this. And travel brands have an opportunity to come into this loop.

Few months ago experienced loyalty and payment executive, Jonathan Vaux, in an interview with Ai, referred to a healthcare app (Vitality) that he uses, and avails coupons/ vouchers from the same. And for a coffee voucher, he considered another app/ wallet (YoYo). Vaux chose not to visit the store for #redemption because of the pandemic. “All three brands have reworked on the utility of a coupon and ensured home delivery is possible via a loyalty app,” said Vaux. 

It is imperative to assess what a consumer is looking for and how to get into that loop is what counts. This one of the reasons by financial technology (fintech) specialists are making inroads into consmers’ lives, looking at day-to-day activities.  

During a recent Ai conference, Kate Morgan, Head of International Partnerships, Auriemma Group stressed on the significance of maintaining the existing credit card customer base in today’s environment. She referred to certain offers/ initiatives resulting in more frequent use of cards. The list included discount delivery on food orders, increased cashback rewards in certain category, extended sign-up bonuses etc. are examples of the same. 

Travel merchants can also look at consumer insights resulting from co-brand card data in order to understand the profile and shopping behaviour of cardholders.

“Co-brand data enables you to fill in the blanks in consumer knowledge with a more holistic view of your customers’ behavior away from your brand,” said Paul Alexander, Group Chief Executive, Beyond Analysis during Ai’s Co-brand & Travel Reward Cards Virtual Conference 2020.

 

By Ritesh Gupta

Ai Team