Summer is just around the corner, and it’s time to start building your cardholder engagement! Seasonality is a crucial strategy when evaluating your loyalty program performance. Creating a cohesive promotion and marketing strategy around the season can help boost your cardholder engagement and spending, resulting in more portfolio revenue for your organization. Our experts have shared the top spending trends for summer and how your financial institution can leverage them to lift spend and usage.
Home Improvement and Outdoors
The weather is warming up and for many people, it’s time to start fixing up their homes. Many cardholders use this time of the year to refresh their gardens, begin large home projects and freshen up their home for summer fun. Home improvement and outdoor recreation stores are going to see a large jump this summer as cardholders continue to use their rewards-linked card for large projects and home necessities.
Our Recommendation: Create a promotion offering your cardholders 2x bonus points on purchases made at home improvement stores between May and June to increase usage, drive spend and reward cardholder behavior as they spend more at these stores during this season.
Domestic Travel
With increased conflicts around the world and the loosening of domestic COVID-19 guidelines, we’re expecting to see a large lift in domestic travel. From road trips to large family expeditions, you can expect cardholders to use their rewards-linked cards more for family fun and sunshine getaways to relax and unwind after a chilly winter. Particularly, domestic travel will be higher than international because of the risk of travel and the growth of inflation, minimizing options for cardholders to travel to more exotic or distant destinations.
Our Recommendation: Encourage cardholders to use their rewards-link card at the pump by adding Fuel With Points to your loyalty program. With this real-time rewards feature, cardholders can gain discounts at participating fuel stations using their points.
Entertainment and Dining
As COVID-19 guidelines and restrictions continue to loosen due to the decrease in cases across the nation, we can expect to see an increase in entertainment and dining usage. People are ready to hit the town after being trapped in the house all winter long, and will likely have more date nights, nights out and friends or family gatherings. Additionally, with the increase in travel, they will likely be eating out more frequently and trying new things at their destination of choice.
Our Recommendation: Share with cardholders about card-linked offers opportunities to earn bonus points at local and national restaurants, all paid for by the merchants!
Grocery
It’s an outdoor season, and with people increasing their gathering quantities and sizes, the chances are they’re going to need more groceries to feed more people. The average order price for grocery purchases is expected to increase with the rise in gatherings, summer activities and children being out of school. From ice cream sundaes to picnics in the park to holiday weekend barbecues, you can expect to see a lift in grocery spending all summer long.
Our Recommendation: Create a promotion offering 2x bonus points for grocery purchases during Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Labor Day weekends.
Each season offers a different opportunity to target cardholders where they are already spending and increase usage across categories to improve portfolio revenue and engagement. Your cardholders will be happy with the opportunities to earn more for their behavior, and in turn, cardholder retention will be improved for your financial institution.
Maximize Cardholder Engagement Today – Learn more about our experts will help you to boost cardholder engagement and begin planning your summer promotional calendar!