Loyalty and rewards

Charging what people are willing to pay is an exact science, claims First Insight's Jim Shea, who contends the loyalty programs and price perks that merchants offer aren't always necessary.

The payments industry has come a long way with how it treats loyalty and rewards. Here are some of the more creative offerings to come about this year.

As contactless payment cards gain more momentum in U.K., supermarket giant Tesco wants to be sure its store loyalty card doesn't get left behind.

Like almost everything else related to Amazon's incursion into retail, the company's premium loyalty program has achieved a scale that appears ready to swallow the rest of the industry.

Citigroup is trying to gain an edge in the hotly contested category by introducing these competitive elements to its revamped Citi Prestige card.

Amazon wants you to marvel at its broad sales figures, but the details should be far more alarming to traditional retailers.

Advanced operating systems can run marketing and support services such as Apple Pay. Merchants would be well served to consider the diverse options of new terminals, writes Ben Wagner, director of solutions at Ingenico Group, North America.

Long wait times and improved marketing are a couple of reasons retailers should consider their own apps, writes André Stoorvoge, director of product marketing for payments at Rambus.

Apple's plans to display a bright blue bar on iPhone screens when an application is monitoring the user's location may feel like a threat to location-based marketing. More likely, it is an overdue wake-up call for banks to improve their communication about the benefits of location data.

Retailers should focus on creating a premium experience for a broad range of customers, writes Tom Caporaso, CEO of Clarus Commerce.