Loyalty and rewards

American Express is putting its involvement in the Hyperledger Project to the test, deploying blockchain technology with Boxed to enable the digital warehouse merchant to customize a rewards plan for Amex cardholders.

For Whole Foods, the potential to tap into the sheer volume of new customers via the Amazon Prime premium loyalty program is unprecedented, writes Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.

Card issuers have long feared that third-party mobile wallets would erode their brand power by rendering them an invisible part of the payment process — and issuers like Barclays and TD Bank are finding ways to fight back.

Prime customers, who pay an annual fee for benefits such as free two-day shipping and access to Amazon’s video and music library, will now also get discounts at the upscale, organic supermarket that Amazon bought last year.

In the battle that’s raged over the last two years to win top-of-wallet status among luxury card users, the only clear winners may be savvy consumers who’ve learned how to game the system.

Mobile has been a boon for Cardlytics, which says more than half of the deals consumers choose now come from the mobile channel.

Samsung Pay has worked to differentiate itself from other mobile wallets with Samsung Rewards, and now it’s enriching that program with a cash-back option and the ability to purchase rewards points like airline mileage programs.

Barclays is one of the top five cobranded card issuers in the U.S., but because the bank has no branch network it must use unconventional marketing approaches — and unique technological innovations — to win customers.

Younger consumers are more willing to shop around compared to previous generations, and the on-demand economy means there is an expectation of instant gratification, writes Julian Wallis, retail director at Rambus.

Lacy Morris would seem to be in a tough spot as the main techie for a smaller coffee chain that's deploying mobile technology years after Starbucks dominated the market. But Starbucks has made missteps, he contends, leaving room for rivals to learn from those mistakes.