These days, with price increases at record levels, everyone is looking for ways to make their money go further when purchasing both necessities and non-essential items. Whether it’s immediate savings on a purchase, or by accruing rewards that lead to future savings, over half of American customers think loyalty programs are more important than ever to help them stretch their budgets in these challenging times.
For many customers, a loyalty program offering cashback rewards for online shopping is one tool they have adopted as they seek out every cost-cutting measure they can find.
For organizations, this heightened budget sensitivity represents an opportunity to be positioned to customers as a savings-minded shopping helper. Companies can assist their customers with a convenient tool that offers cashback rewards and discounts for shopping to help offset the cost of purchases and help with one facet of their financial health.
As opposed to a single-brand loyalty program (say, Sephora or Starbucks), where customers earn points, product, or future discounts from that same store, most cashback rewards platforms offer a wide array of merchants in various categories.
In fact, it’s critical to have a huge breadth of stores available in any cashback shopping rewards program, so that customers can maximize their cashback opportunities at almost any store where they happen to shop.
Furthermore, consumers expect that cashback platforms will offer them rewards at the retailers that serve their needs the most. And oftentimes those needs change based on personal circumstances, employment, or even life stage.
None of us can forget how our consumer buying behavior changed dramatically during the pandemic lockdown. Rewards programs that offered consumers everything from essentials like over the counter medications or prescription glasses to food delivery or office supplies were incredibly important to consumers at that time.
While we have (thankfully!) since moved away from being on lockdown, the result is that there are now millions of consumers trained that it's far more convenient and often less expensive to shop online and have items delivered to your home than drive all over town to seek the best deal. Hello… gas prices!
Customers now simply expect that they’ll be able to have their needs met for everyday essentials as well as discretionary purchases, simply by shopping online. And with the broad need among consumers to stretch their budgets, the consumers that shop online using cashback rewards platforms will further expect that they’ll be able to earn cashback from any online store they visit.
A large merchant portfolio with a broad variety of stores from which to shop and earn cashback rewards or savings is just table-stakes for customers today.
We see first-hand the benefits of having an extensive merchant network to surprise and delight shoppers with cashback opportunities at thousands of online stores. Because of our massive merchant portfolio with over 50,000 merchant programs, plus the volume of transactions we process as customers activate cashback at those merchants, we have unique insights into shopping data reflecting shopping preferences and trends in consumer demand.
Here are a couple of interesting notes from Wildfire's data in 2022 so far:
So far this year vs. 2021, consumer preferences continued shifting away from pandemic-driven interest in stay-at-home categories like food delivery and comfy lounge clothing.
Instead, interest in “regular” clothing, plus travel and experiences, showed a marked increase.
Consumers so far in 2022 are definitely spending money differently, with large YOY increases in gross sales from merchants like Nordstrom, Loft, Priceline, TicketMaster, and Fandango - all of which is indicative of consumers spending money on clothing for the office, on travel, and on experiences.
With a wide-ranging merchant network, a company’s cashback rewards program is positioned to just automatically be “available” when consumer demands shift (sometimes unpredictably - as noted earlier in the pandemic lockdowns example.)
A robust merchant network with as many retailers as possible means a cashback rewards program is always ready to meet the needs of fickle shoppers whose preferences may change based on something as fleeting as a viral TikTok dance.
It is imperative that any cashback rewards platform meets those demands by ensuring there is a breadth of merchants across all categories. Consumers looking to maximize rewards are savvy and will expect that rewards will be offered anywhere they shop. Otherwise, they will have less confidence in, and participate less in offers from a platform that doesn’t meet their needs. Worst-case scenario, they may simply uninstall, and seek another platform.