Barclaycard US is introducing the Barclaycard Rewards Boost program for its more than 3 million credit cardholders, the U.S. payments division of Barclays PLC announced Aug. 16.
The card issuer created the accelerated rewards program with loyalty shopping platform provider Cartera Commerce Inc. to generate more loyalty for its card programs.
The program offers higher rewards for shopping through the Web-based loyalty platform. For example, if a cardholder typically earns one point per dollar spent on his or her card at many participating merchants the cardholder now will earn from two to 10 points. The rewards automatically are earned and credited.
The program includes more than 1,000 online, local and national retailers, including NFL.com, Travelocity, Barnes & Noble and Carnival Cruise Lines, Marc Caltabiano, Cartera vice president of marketing and products, tells PaymentsSource.
Barclaycard expects the program to help engender cardholder loyalty, says Eric Crozier, the issuer’s senior director of product development.
“We’ve seen consumers retreating from spending and deleveraging their credit borrowing, so it’s critically more important now to provide consumers with a way to get additional savings,” he says. “Consumers today are looking for the best value for their financial well-being today, so when they look to spend on a card product they need a compelling reason to use one card over another.”
Increasing competition from other card brands, such as Capital One Financial Corp., also motivated Barclays to build out a rich rewards program, Crozier noted.
One analyst reiterates that issuers should do more to secure loyalty to boost credit card spending, which has dropped in recent years.
“There’s no question that Barclaycard is keeping in line with the trends to offer more rewards,” says Ron Shevlin, senior analyst at Aite Group of Boston, noting Cartera is one of the leaders in designing and implanting perspective in loyalty programs. “It’s not a big surprise to see more issuers moving in this direction.”
Cardholders automatically are enrolled in the Reward Boost program, and Barclays is sending out initial emails introducing the initiative this month, says Crozier. The issuer plans to market the program through all its consumer communication channels, including its website, phone centers and via emails.
About 2 million cardholders already are eligible for the program, and Barclaycard plans to roll out participation to its other 1 million cardholders throughout the year, Crozier says.
Barclaycard also plans to introduce a mobile application in 2012, he says.
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