6 ways banking rewards can drive growth for retailers
Quick answer:
Banking rewards can help retailers reach relevant customers through established banking ecosystems, influence behaviours such as acquisition, reactivation, spend and repeat purchasing, and connect campaign activity to transaction-based results. That gives retailers another route to drive growth while measuring outcomes such as new customers, incentivised spend, transaction value, repeat frequency, and ROI.
In a hurry? Here are the three top takeaways from our blog on 6 ways banking rewards can drive growth for retailers.
1. Banking rewards can put retailers in front of established consumer audiences: Rather than relying only on your own channels to find customers, banking rewards programmes create another route to reach people with relevant offers.
2. Growth can come from more than acquisition: Banking rewards can support new customer acquisition, reactivation, increased spend and repeat purchasing, giving retailers different ways to influence growth.
3. You can measure value through transactions: Banking rewards activity can be connected to outcomes including incentivised spend, transactions, new customers, repeat transaction frequency, and ROI, helping retailers understand what their investment delivered.
Got time to stick around? Let's dive a little deeper.
Retail growth is rarely driven by one channel, one campaign or one customer behaviour. The strongest strategies create more opportunities to reach the right people, give them a relevant reason to buy and connect that activity to commercial results. Banking rewards can help retailers do exactly that. By placing targeted offers within established rewards ecosystems, they can support acquisition, reactivation, higher spend and repeat purchasing. Crucially, retailers can measure impact through transactions, helping them see not only who engaged but what their investment delivered. Here are six ways to turn banking rewards into measurable retail growth.
Contents:
What is a growth strategy for retailers?
What does penetration growth for retailers entail?
What is diversification growth for retailers based on?
How do banking rewards programmes work for retailers?
What does a banking reward look like for the consumer
6 ways banking rewards can drive growth for retailers
What does a successful banking rewards programme look like for consumers?
How should retailers measure growth from banking rewards?
Where do banking rewards fit into an omnichannel retail growth strategy?
Are banking rewards right for every retailer?
What is a growth strategy for retailers?
A growth strategy for retailers is a plan for increasing the commercial value your business creates. That could mean attracting more customers, winning back people who haven't shopped with you recently, encouraging repeat purchases, increasing customer spend, or finding another channel to reach consumers.
There isn't one route to growth. Your strategy depends on where the biggest opportunity sits for your business.
Do you need more customers? More frequent customers? Bigger transactions? A larger share of the market you're already in?
Knowing the answer matters because growth isn't simply about reaching more people. It's about changing the customer behaviours that produce better commercial outcomes.
That's where banking rewards programmes get interesting.
Rather than treating rewards as a standalone loyalty tactic, retailers can use banking rewards as another way to reach consumers with targeted offers and link that activity to transactions.
What does penetration growth for retailers entail?
Penetration growth for retailers entails growing your position within a market you already serve. For a retailer, that can mean winning more customers, bringing previous customers back or encouraging existing customers to choose your brand more frequently.
Banking rewards programmes can support that objective by giving retailers another route to consumers.
The important distinction is this: you're not necessarily trying to create an entirely new market. You're giving consumers another reason to choose you within an existing one.
What is diversification growth for retailers based on?
Diversification growth for retailers comes from finding new sources of growth beyond your existing mix of products and markets. That's different from simply adding a new marketing channel.
Joining a banking rewards programme won't automatically turn your strategy into diversification. It can, however, expand the ways consumers discover and engage with your brand.
Think of banking rewards as another potential route into the customer's everyday spending journey – a very significant route.
How do banking rewards programmes work for retailers?
Banking rewards programmes connect retailers with consumers through established rewards ecosystems, with retailer offers presented to relevant customers through channels such as banking apps. A customer's qualifying spend can then be connected with the reward and campaign outcome.
The precise customer proposition varies by programme, but from the retailer's perspective, the basic relationship is straightforward:
Reach the customer → give them a relevant reason to shop → turn interest into a transaction → understand the commercial outcome.
Card-linked offers can form the activation layer within those programmes. Rather than repeat the mechanics here, our retailer's guide to card-linked offers takes a deeper look at what CLOs are and how they work.
What does a banking reward look like for the consumer?
From the customer's side, one thing becomes particularly important: simplicity. A consumer can encounter a relevant retailer offer as part of a banking rewards experience and then make a qualifying purchase with the retailer.
Your banking rewards programme should make the value of that interaction clear. Because while the commercial objective belongs to the retailer, the experience has to work for the customer. If the customer doesn't see the value, there is little reason to change their behaviour.
6 ways banking rewards can drive growth for retailers
So, where's the growth? From finding customers to generating measurable revenue, here are six opportunities we'd have at the top of our list.
1. Reach new customers through banking rewards programmes
Every retailer wants new customers. The harder question is: where are you going to find them?
Banking rewards give retailers an additional route.
Instead of relying solely on consumers discovering you through paid advertising, organic search, social media or your own CRM channels, your offers can become part of an established rewards environment.
We've seen the impact that can have.
In the first four cycles of a banking rewards programme, we put our client -- a global home furnishings brand – in front of an addressable audience of 4 million; they acquired 86,200 new customers and generated £9.2 million in incentivised spend from new customers.
That's the important connection because reach is useful, but new customers spending with you is better.
If acquisition is your priority, we've explored the tactics in more detail in our guide on how to attract new customers with card-linked offers.
Quick takeaway:
Banking rewards turn audience access into a practical acquisition route, with success measured by the new customers and spend generated rather than reach alone.
2. Bring lapsed customers back
Not every new transaction needs to come from a new customer. Sometimes growth is about giving someone who already knows you a compelling reason to choose you again.
The same home furnishings banking rewards programme mentioned above reactivated 17,700 lapsed customers, generating £1.6 million in spend from those customers across its first four campaign cycles.
That's an important part of retail penetration growth.
A customer who hasn't visited recently doesn't have to stay a lapsed customer. A relevant reward can give your brand another reason to enter their consideration set.
The trick is knowing who you're trying to influence and what behaviour you're trying to change.
For a deeper dive into that specific challenge, take a look at our guide to re-engaging lapsed customers with card-linked offers.
Quick takeaway:
Reactivation can be a meaningful growth lever. A relevant reward gives customers who already know your brand a timely reason to return.
3. Increase customer spend
More customers don't automatically mean more valuable customers. Retail growth can also come from influencing what happens when somebody decides to buy.
What is their average transaction value? How much incentivised spend did the programme generate? Is customer spending behaviour moving in the direction you wanted?
We ran a 12-month banking rewards programme for a casual dining brand, generating £2.5 million in incentivised spend across 63,000 incentivised transactions, with an average transaction value of £39.70.
The opportunity isn't simply "give people a discount so they spend more".
It's much more strategic than that. Start with the commercial behaviour you want to influence. Then build the offer around it.
We've gone further into those mechanics in our guide to increasing customer spend with card-linked offers.
Quick takeaway:
Start with the spend behaviour you want to influence, then shape the reward and measurement plan around that commercial objective.
4. Give customers another reason to come back
One purchase is good. A reason to come back is better.
Customer frequency matters because sustainable retail growth isn't only about driving isolated transactions. It's also about giving customers reasons to choose you again.
That's why repeat transaction frequency belongs alongside acquisition and spend when you're assessing the results of a banking rewards programme.
That same client on a 12-month banking rewards programme saw average repeat transaction frequency increase to 1.3, while another programme recorded 1.25.
The wider rewards market is increasingly focused on this connection between value and ongoing engagement. Retail Focus, for example, highlights repeat visits, personalisation, cross-channel experiences and ongoing engagement as important considerations in retail loyalty.
For retailers, though, the question should remain commercial: Did the programme give customers a reason to choose us again?
If the answer is yes, you're looking beyond short-term promotion and towards longer-term customer value.
Quick takeaway:
Sustainable growth comes from giving customers relevant reasons to return, not only from generating isolated transactions.
5. Make your offers more relevant
Customers don't need another irrelevant promotion. They need value that makes sense to them.
That's why personalisation and data-driven marketing appear so frequently in discussions about modern retail growth. Optimove, consistently identifies personalisation, omnichannel marketing, and data-driven improvement as elements of its retail marketing strategy.
Banking rewards can create opportunities to make offers more relevant to consumers based on the programme's capabilities.
For retailers, the principle is simple: Don't start with "What discount can we offer?"
Start with: "Who are we trying to influence, and what do we want them to do differently?"
- New customers may need a reason to try you.
- Lapsed customers may need a reason to return.
- Existing customers may need a reason to visit more frequently.
Different growth problems need different answers.
Quick takeaway:
Relevance starts with the customer behaviour you want to change. The strongest offer is the one designed for that specific audience and outcome.
6. Connect marketing investment with measurable retail growth
Clicks, impressions and engagement all play a role in consumer marketing, but those metrics – as impressive as some may be – don’t equal a purchase.
For retailers under pressure to demonstrate what their investment actually delivered, that distinction matters. Banking rewards activity can provide transaction-related measures such as:
- New customers acquired
- Lapsed customers reactivated
- Incentivised spend
- Incentivised transactions
- Average transaction value
- Repeat transaction frequency
- ROI
These measures are reflected across our banking rewards case studies.
Consider another casual dining example from our portfolio:
Over one month, the banking rewards programme delivered £536,000 in incentivised spend, 12,000 incentivised transactions and 10,000 new customers. The case study reports an ROI of £17.90 for every £1 invested in the scheme
That's a very different conversation from: "How many people saw our campaign?"
It allows the conversation to move closer to: "What did our investment actually deliver?"
That's where banking rewards move from being an interesting promotional channel to becoming a measurable part of your growth strategy.
Quick takeaway:
Transaction-based reporting helps move the conversation from campaign visibility to commercial value, showing what the investment actually delivered.
What does a successful banking rewards programme look like for consumers?
Consumers care about relevance, ease of use, and a clear value add.
We've talked a lot about retailers, but growth happens only when consumers choose to act, so it helps to flip the perspective. A successful rewards experience should answer three questions for the customer:
- Is it relevant? An offer that's relevant to someone's interests or behaviour has a clearer reason to be there.
- Is it easy? Every extra hurdle gives a customer another chance to walk away, making the automated rewards redemption feature in our banking rewards programmes a big win. Consumers may also need nudges, which is why we run marketing campaigns that include push notifications, in-app offers, and pop-up ads.
- Is the value clear? Customers shouldn't have to work hard to understand why an offer is useful. The commercial objective might be acquisition, frequency, reactivation or spend.
The customer objective is much simpler: "What's in it for me?"
When those two sides work together, rewards can create value people experience alongside outcomes retailers can measure.
How should retailers measure growth from banking rewards?
Retailers measure growth from banking rewards by first outlining clear objectives, benchmarking where they're starting, and setting KPIs to measure incremental growth.
| If you want to | Measure |
| Acquire customers | New customers acquired |
| Reactivate customers | Lapsed customers returning |
| Generate revenue | Incentivised spend |
| Understand transaction value | Average transaction value |
| Encourage repeat behaviour | Repeat transaction frequency |
| Prove commercial return | ROI |
The point isn't to collect more metrics. It's to measure the ones that tell you whether you've achieved the growth you set out to create.
Where do banking rewards fit into an omnichannel retail growth strategy?
Banking rewards shouldn't have to work in isolation. Consumers move between digital and physical touchpoints, and retail-growth content increasingly reflects that.
Optimove advocates omnichannel marketing, while Hike describes connecting physical and online channels as part of retail growth. Banking rewards add another potential touchpoint to that journey, especially when back by targeted digital marketing activity, including push notifications, in-app offers and pop-up ads.
You don't need to think of banking rewards as replacing your existing loyalty, CRM, acquisition or retention activity. Think of them as another route into your customer's everyday spending decisions.
Are banking rewards right for every retailer?
Ask a better question first: What are you trying to achieve? If you can't answer that, you're not ready to choose the tactic.
Start with the growth problem:
- Do we want to reach new customers?
- Do we want to reactivate lapsed customers?
- Do we want customers to spend more?
- Do we want customers to return more frequently?
- Do we want to demonstrate a clearer link between marketing activity and transactions?
Then define what success looks like.
Start with the behaviour you want to change, not the reward you want to offer. That's how banking rewards become part of a retail growth strategy, not just another promotion.
Banking rewards programmes. Retail growth you can measure.
Growth doesn't always mean another store, another product or another huge acquisition campaign. Sometimes it's about getting closer to the customers you want to reach and giving them a relevant reason to act.
Banking rewards programmes give retailers another route:
- To acquire
- To reconnect
- To encourage another visit
- To increase spend
- And, crucially, to understand the commercial outcome.
Pluxee connects retailers with rewards opportunities designed to turn customer engagement into measurable value.
Key takeaway:
Banking rewards are most effective when retailers begin with a clear growth objective, create a relevant reason for customers to act and measure the resulting behaviour through transactions. Used this way, they can support acquisition, reactivation, spend and repeat purchasing while demonstrating outcomes the business can prove.
What is a growth strategy for retailers?
A retail growth strategy is a plan for increasing the commercial value of a retail business. Depending on the business, this could involve acquiring customers, increasing customer spend, improving purchase frequency, reactivating previous customers, developing new channels or entering new markets.
How do banking rewards programmes work for retailers?
Banking rewards programmes provide retailers with a way to reach consumers with offers through established rewards ecosystems. Depending on the programme, card-linked technology can connect qualifying purchases with rewards and enable retailers to measure transaction-related outcomes.
For more detail on the underlying technology, read our retailer's guide to card-linked offers.
How do banking rewards programmes work for consumers?
The exact experience depends on the programme. Lloyds Bank, for example, says customers can access retailer cashback offers in its mobile banking app, activate offers that interest them and receive cashback after making a qualifying purchase with an eligible debit or credit card.
Can banking rewards help retailers attract new customers?
Yes, they can form part of an acquisition strategy. In one Pluxee banking rewards programme, a global home furnishings retailer acquired 86,200 new customers, generating £9.2 million in new-customer incentivised spend across the first four campaign cycles.
Can banking rewards help retailers re-engage lapsed customers?
They can be used with reactivation as the objective. The same banking rewards case study reported reactivating 17,700 lapsed customers and driving £1.6 million in lapsed-customer spend.
Can banking rewards increase customer spend?
Banking rewards campaigns can be designed around spend-related outcomes and measured using metrics such as incentivised spend and average transaction value. One 12-month casual dining banking rewards programme generated £2.5 million in incentivised spend, with an average transaction value of £39.70.
How do retailers measure ROI from banking rewards programmes?
Start by agreeing the commercial objective and relevant measures. Depending on the programme, those measures can include new customers, reactivated customers, incentivised spend, transaction volume, average transaction value, repeat transaction frequency and ROI. These measures are represented across Pluxee's banking rewards case studies.
What is penetration growth for retailers?
Penetration growth focuses on increasing a retailer's position within an existing market, for example by acquiring customers, winning back previous shoppers or encouraging customers to purchase more frequently.
What is diversification growth for retailers?
Diversification is a growth strategy that creates growth beyond a company's existing combination of products and markets. Adding banking rewards as another marketing or distribution route should not automatically be treated as diversification.
What's the difference between a banking rewards programme and a retailer loyalty programme?
A retailer loyalty programme is typically centred on a customer's relationship with an individual retailer. Banking rewards can give consumers access to retailer offers within a wider rewards ecosystem. The exact mechanics and reward experience depend on the programme.
How can retailers join banking rewards programmes?
Retailers can work with partners like Pluxee that connect merchants with rewards programmes. Our banking rewards offers a fully managed programme, a CPA model, automated rewards redemption and no client technology integration requirement.
Sources:
Written by Corin Chapman, Content Marketing Lead, Pluxee UK
Approved by Jonathan Bedford, Merchants and Partners Director, Pluxee UK