An assessment of supermarket loyalty cards in one major US market

A survey was conducted in a large US metropolitan area of the West. The objective of the study was to determine if loyalty cards issued by supermarkets are actually associated with customer loyalty and how loyalty cards compare with other factors that retailers could use to enhance supermarket loyalty. The results indicate that loyalty cards are not associated with supermarket loyalty. Frequent users of loyalty cards are more likely to shop at different stores and use loyalty cards from several stores. The consumer respondents indicated that there are a number of factors other than having a supermarket loyalty card that would be more likely to increase their loyalty to any one supermarket. Besides confirming the universally accepted belief that consumers would be more loyal to conveniently located supermarkets, the respondents identified a few other factors that would enhance their supermarket loyalty such as stores that offer fast check‐out lanes. Loyalty factors were cluster analyzed into three categories, those most important, those least important, and those of moderate importance.