3 Reasons to Leverage Prepaid Cards for Your Loyalty Program

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Almost 80% of Australians are members of at least one loyalty program, with the average Australian belonging to 6 loyalty programs.1 There’s little doubt that loyalty programs are central to the customer experience and many businesses’ strategy.

Prepaid cards can help you retain existing customers, attract new customers, raise brand awareness, and open up ways you interact with your consumers. Let’s look at some of the ways prepaid cards can bring your loyalty program to life.

#1 – Increase brand exposure in-store and online

A branded prepaid card provides a unique opportunity for customers to have a physical, in-person experience with your business. Whether you are a brick-and-mortar or online store, or both, prepaid cards are a powerful reminder of your brand and a strong motivator for spending.

Branded prepaid cards these days are sophisticated and can be tailored to your customer experience. You can choose between a physical and/or a virtual card that sits in the customer’s physical or digital wallet and/or a supporting mobile app.

Look into your wallet and you’ll likely find a few loyalty and membership cards. These cards feature the company’s logo, colours and branding and can generally be stored in your digital wallet or loyalty app.

#2 – Incentivise spend, drive engagement and grow loyalty

Prepaid cards are a powerful tool for your loyalty program, to motivate behaviours such as visiting your store, providing customer feedback and making purchases. Its capabilities extend far beyond the single use gift cards that often the first thing that comes to mind.

Loyalty Prepaid Cards come in various types and forms to support your promotions, rebates, referrals, VIP programs and other incentives. There’s the straightforward points-based rewards card, the VIP members card, and a ‘multi-merchant rewards card’ that gives you discounts and offers to various merchants. Nowadays there are many loyalty programs that offer a cashback straight to your linked card or bank account.

Most loyalty programs can be delivered with the help of reloadable prepaid cards. This type of card is particularly powerful as your customers can continuously spend, earn rewards and load funds, allowing them to connect with your brand in an ongoing way.

#3 – Unlock valuable customer insights 

‘Data is the new oil’ is a term coined to emphasise the importance of tapping into and mining the massive amounts of data available to businesses.

Prepaid cards can unlock valuable insights around a customer’s spending and redemption behaviour. Is the customer using the prepaid card in-store or online? Is the customer simply redeeming the reward or making additional purchases? How often are your customers logging in to track their rewards balance, spending and offers?

Having access to customer spending habits, especially in the areas of rewards, will help businesses to offer personalised experiences. Being able to track rewards, redemptions and promotions will enable businesses validate, evaluate and form future product changes and marketing strategies.

[1] ACCC, Australian Loyalty Schemes A Loyalty & Reward Co report for the ACCC June 2019

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