Loyalty Platforms: From Cost Center to Revenue-Generating Powerhouses

In the past year, Admitad partners have helped brands generate over USD 20 million in revenue through their loyalty programs, while customers earned more than USD 750,000 in cashback and rewards.

For years, loyalty programs represented an expense where points, cashback, and discounts were paid out to retain customers, usually at a loss. Now, loyalty programs extend beyond retention; they are strategic revenue drivers. With smart partnerships, gamification, and software platforms like Admitad, businesses in industries have made loyalty go from expense to profit.

The evolution of loyalty programs is creating opportunities for businesses. 

Today’s consumers expect loyalty programs to understand and deliver value in their daily lives, whether shopping or using their credit or debit cards, traveling, streaming, or gaming. Simply, consumers are no longer satisfied with “points” as the basic reward. They want rewards that are relevant, immediate, and worth celebrating! Retail, travel, gaming, and entertainment, as well as finance and fintech, are evolving loyalty programs into “engagement” engines of revenue for brands. Properly designed and implemented, a loyalty program can deliver multiple new revenue streams with simple, low-risk, and cost-effective systems, create and engage loyalty and retention marketing; and differentiate a brand among a plethora of competitive offerings.

The commercialization of loyalty programs has turned into a robust model that works well in almost any industry. The process is straightforward: when a customer shops, pays, books travel, or even plays, the business receives a commission through its partner network like Admitad. That commission is split between the customer and the merchant. Customers get their share paid to them in cash, points, discounts, or other exclusive benefits, while the business keeps the remaining funds as profit. This leads to a sustainable win-win-win ecosystem when used in this way, as customers receive added value in making their purchase, partners benefit with additional sales and customer engagement, and businesses have an additional low-risk revenue stream that generates loyalty while improving their bottom line.

Monetisation Across Industries

1. Banking and Fintech

Banking and Fintech institutions are no longer providing only points. They are monetizing loyalty by integrating card transactions and mobile applications to partner offers. This means that each swipe, payment, or in-app activity can be monetized.

2. Retail and E-commerce

Retailers are turning their loyalty schemes into reward marketplaces. While customers are receiving cashback or vouchers or participating in gamified rewards, retailers are monetizing transactions through partner incentives and commissions.

3. Travel and Hospitality

The practice of airlines, hotels, and booking channels monetizing loyalty through avenues other than points and miles is gaining traction. They are leveraging their networks, including partner networks, to offer upgrades and benefits. They are creating experiences that span brands and monetizing loyalty at the same time.

4. Gaming and Entertainment

Gaming platforms and OTT providers are monetizing engagement through rewarding points, badges, and gamified missions. Loyalty programs are driving engagement and monetizing opportunities from partners.

How Loyalty Programs Work with Brands

Brands collaborate with loyalty program providers, which create a partner-driven ecosystem for the brands that ties every customer experience (purchase, booking, subscription) back to revenue. The brand joins a loyalty network (like Admitad), which connects the brand to thousands of merchants/partners, and whenever the customer interacts with the partner or merchant (like booking a car), the brand earns commission. The partner will take a piece of that commission to offset their practice marketing costs, and then the brand provides some of the commission back to the customer in the form of cashback, points, discounts, etc., which enables the brand to still profit on the sale. This also provides the businesses the ability to reward the customer, engage the customer, monetize customer loyalty, and create incremental revenues for the brand without increasing inventory and operating costs.

The Admitad Advantage

Platforms like Admitad make it easy to monetize loyalty programs at scale:

• Connect to thousands of network partners globally and locally across industries.
• Manage, monitor, and deliver incentives effortlessly.
• Flexible forms of incentives: cashbacks, points, discounts, exclusive perks, and gamified rewards.
• Trust is assured to customers and partners with transparent reporting.
• Admitad loyalty programs shift from cost centers to profitable ecosystems.

The Future of Loyalty

Loyalty is not providing the most number of points; loyalty is enabling the greatest opportunity to monetize loyalty.

Companies that created partnerships, gamification, and flexible rewards deliver a stronger customer brand connection and sustainable revenue. No matter the sector, banking, retail, travel, or gaming, loyalty is now one of the largest opportunities to leverage growth in a digital economy.

Ready to turn your loyalty program into a revenue engine?
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