Loyalty cards and the revitalisation of the town centre

The context for this paper is the growth of the out‐of‐town superstore and the subsequent decline of the town centre. It examines the development of a town centre loyalty card programme in the town of Leominster and reports on both quantitative and qualitative research carried out to assess the results of this initiative and its prospects for the future. The paper comments on the criteria that other town centre loyalty cards must consider and discusses the options available for enhancement of loyalty cards in the light of technological developments and in the context of the role that they can play in the revitalisation of the town centre.