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American Express Talks the Future of Loyalty at NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show

At NRF, Erin Frankcombe, Vice President and General Manager of Amex Offers & Business Insights, led a discussion with leaders from companies who are focused on innovation and using digital tools to help elevate their customers experiences.

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American Express

Digital innovation and customization, among other strategies leading the future of customer loyalty, took center stage at NRF 2024: Retail’s Big Show at the Javits Center in New York City. This annual event brings together retailers and industry changemakers for the opportunity to get inspired and connected.

At NRF, Erin Frankcombe, Vice President and General Manager of Amex Offers & Business Insights, led a discussion with leaders from companies who are focused on innovation and using digital tools to help elevate their customers experiences.

Panel participants included:

• Superlogic, an Amex Ventures portfolio Miami-based revolutionary technology company building enterprise grade loyalty and connected commerce solutions for the world’s most innovative brands
• Brompton Bicycles, a London-based manufacturer of folding bicycles and Amex Offers participant
• 1-800-FLOWERS.com, a Jericho, NY-based floral and foods gift retailer and distribution company and Amex Offers participant

“Consumers are becoming more digitally savvy and have high expectations when it comes to personalized touches in their retail experience,” said Frankcombe. “It’s imperative for businesses to consistently deliver on this front. The challenge lies in how to efficiently sustain that level of personalization at scale.”

Frankcombe spoke to Lin Dai, Founder & CEO of Superlogic; Dawn Fichot, Head of Marketing in North America for Brompton Bicycles; and Jason John, Chief Marketing Officer of 1-800-FLOWERS.COM.

Read more about how each business is navigating an ever-changing retail landscape and customizing experiences at scale.

Frankcombe: How has your approach to customer engagement and loyalty evolved while staying in line with your core value proposition?

Dai: We saw an opportunity to create new loyalty technologies that help companies drive more customer activity and engagement – by enhancing, not replacing their existing loyalty system. To do this, we built a comprehensive system that can reward both purchase and non-purchase actions with features like “engage-to-earn” and a next-gen peer-to-peer rewards marketplace. Customers can earn, buy, and trade benefits and rewards to get what they really want when they purchase, watch, engage, share, and more.

Frankcombe: How does 1-800-FLOWERS attract and retain customers across its diverse brand portfolio? Does AI contribute to this strategy?

John: Our strategies are developed with two key objectives in mind: Is it relevant to our target consumer? And does it help our consumers to nurture their relationships? Our focus is on giving our community the greatest gift of all – an opportunity for them to have better and more meaningful relationships.

When it comes to relationships, one of the most important parts is listening. We’ve done a great job listening to what our customers want and need throughout their journey with us, and we then build content and content experiences around that.

For example, we build content around how to write a sympathy card because we understand that those are moments where a customer has feelings they want to express but may not be able to find the right words. So, we’re there to help them with that.

And for Mother’s Day, we built MomVerse, which was an AI-powered poem and song generator that the customer could use for free. They didn’t have to purchase anything to use it. It was something they could interact with for free to help express themselves.

For us, it’s a lot about listening and then developing tools, content and other mechanisms to help the customer along their journey and understanding what they want to accomplish.

Frankcombe: At Brompton Bicycles, your team has built a robust in-person brand with a strong community presence, while also expanding into the digital realm with loyalty platforms like Amex Offers. Can you tell us more and touch on how it’s connected to your vision for the future?

Fichot: We saw great success through our collaboration with the Amex Offers team. The Offer helped drive almost six million impressions worth $124k in media value so far this year. In addition, the Offer helped us reach younger potential customers. 64% of those who engaged with the Offer were 45 years old or younger.

We also have a referral program called Mention Me that rewards our customers for recommending our business. Customers that come to us through referrals and spend more than double compared to customers who were not referred in their first six months, which really shows the value of the loyalty program.

Frankcombe: We know customers expect personalized experiences, how are you scaling personalization?

John: The desire for personalization has not changed, but access to data and technology is allowing us to expand how we are delivering these unique experiences.

In the early days of the company, back when we had just one floral shop on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, our founder Jim McCann was able to develop meaningful 1:1 relationships with customers on the shop floor. As the business has grown, we’ve prioritized recreating those 1:1 relationships at scale through deep consumer engagement and personalization initiatives, and by developing a customer community.

Looking to the future in this space, I expect to see more companies partnering with one another around loyalty programs, pooling their resources together to pass increased value and options to their customers at scale.

Fichot: Coming out of COVID and a huge boom of bike purchases, we’ve streamlined product offerings to offer an elevated and tailored suite of products, while increasing customization efforts around our purchasing experience. Brompton has a circular process – interacting with our customers and potential customers IRL and bringing this journey to online purchases. In the last year, we’ve created an extended trial period, opened a new micro-junction in DUMBO, and launched a new subscription service to help make biking more accessible to people and help replace more car journeys.  

Dai: We are hearing from our clients that customization is the next frontier. Consumers demand personalization in their interactions with a brand’s loyalty offerings based on their preferences. One way we achieve this without losing efficiency for a client’s loyalty program is by tokenizing and digitizing all the earnable rewards and benefits into “digital badges,” and introducing a market dynamic by allowing program members to trade these digital rewards badges with other members within the retailer’s own rewards marketplace. Customers earn and trade rewards with each other and end up with more of the perks and benefits they truly want. This also opens brand-to-brand collaborations in a big way. Because rewards are represented digitally, it’s easier than ever to connect and make loyalty programs interoperable, where earning rewards from retail purchases in one program can perhaps unlock front-row tickets to see your favorite artist in a different program. The personalization of rewards and loyalty is not only beneficial for consumers, but can lead to significant increase in sign-ups, engagement and sales for brands.

For more information on NRF 2024, click here.

Source: Amex