John Lewis introduces customer reward card

After a successful round of trials, department store John

Lewis is launching a loyalty card for its customers. Chris Bates, Head of Customer marketing, explained: “We have successfully trialed my John Lewis with specific customer groups, and we are now able to open it up to all of our customers to join from October 30th.”

The loyalty card offers John Lewis customers special rewards, John Lewis will be following in the footsteps of ‘sister’ company Waitrose, as well as other British retailers like Tesco's, who offer a wide range of customer reward cards. The quality grocery store Waitrose, introduced its loyalty card beginning 2011, which offers its holders rewards such as free tea or coffee on a daily basis. Marketing director, Craig Inglis, mentioned last year that developing a customer reward card was an area that the company ‘needed to take a serious look at.’ John Lewis decided to embark on a trial period first, introducing the loyalty card to a select number of customers, before launching the card nationwide.

The card has been given the name, “My John Lewis,” and will consist of a reward program that has been specifically created with its customers in mind. John Lewis hopes to encourage customer loyalty with the introduction of their card, in return for specially tailored rewards. Bates stated that John Lewis made the conscious decision “not to develop a scheme based on collecting points,” and chosen to offer its holders “immediate rewards, previews and events.” The customer can then decide what reward they wish to receive and can chose from a number of prizes, such as entry into prize draws, invitations to product launches, or free tea and cake every month, depending on their spending habits at John Lewis. “It will also get better over time, as the more we learn about customers, the more we can personalize the experience we give them,” Bates concluded, explaining how the loyalty card will also encourage customers to share information about their interests in exchange for further information about chosen products, stores and services.

The 149 year old company, whose worker co-ownership business model was launched by PM David Cameron, was previously thought as a ‘bellwether retailer’, has made a strong come-back over the past three years. John Lewis has recently been named ‘one of the most wanted retailers’ in the UK, according to data collected by e-commerce expert Webloyalty.