Loyalty Blogs

At the start of the new year 2024, Visa came out with the release of a Web3 loyalty solution that has been designed exclusively to meet the future needs of customer engagement and loyalty. This comes with a wide range of immersive products that brands can offer their customers such as gamified giveaways, augmented reality treasure hunts, digital payments, & new amazing ways to earn and spend loyalty points.

In this blog, we will learn about Visa’s new customer engagement platform and how Web 3-based loyalty programs are changing the world of loyalty for customers as well as brands.

Understanding Visa’s Web3 Loyalty Solution

We know that consumer loyalty program preferences and expectations are changing rapidly. Though financial benefits are still considered valuable, customers today are increasingly seeking services & experiences that reflect their specific journey and relationship with the brands they are associated with. Big brands like Nike, Starbucks, Adidas, etc. have been testing Web 3 technologies to enhance their loyalty experiences.

On January 1st week, the new visa solution, which is powered by smart media technologies offers brands an enterprise platform to connect the worlds of Web 2 and Web 3 and can be customized to create tailored experiences and offers for customers. For instance, brands can engage with customers by providing digital wallets where they can apply rewards like perks and benefits towards digital, virtual, and real-world experiences and categories like travel, sports, and more.

Many successful brands are leveraging mobile wallet loyalty programs to offer enhanced loyalty experiences to customers. In the statement by Kathleen Pierce-Gilmore, SVP and Global Head of Issuing Solutions at Visa, she states that – “Consumers are looking to engage with brands in new ways, and traditional loyalty programs have not evolved over the past decade.”

Customers can now earn a unique digital collectible, whether it’s from purchasing tickets for a sports event or participating in an augmented reality treasure hunt. Pierce-Gilmore believes that Visa’s new loyalty solution, designed exclusively in collaboration with Web3 engagement & loyalty platform SmartMedia Technologies will empower brands to reward customers not only for their transactions but for their active engagement, which will pave the way for secure, seamless, and immersive digital and real-world experiences at their fingertips.

Tyler Moebius, CEO of Smart Media Technologies mentioned that this collaboration will help not just in enhancing customer rewards but also in redefining the value exchange between brands and consumers in the mobile payments-first world. He also added that they will be committed to delivering experiences that are as rewarding as they are engaging & relevant for today’s changing customer needs.

How Web3 Loyalty Programs Will Transform Customer Loyalty?

With the shift to a decentralized web, customers will own their data & digital identity and companies will be able to build direct relationships with customers, which is the biggest impact of Web3 on customer loyalty. As third-party cookies that no longer used and tremendous increase in CAC, Web3 will help unlock better opportunities & tap into first- and zero-party data to build digital communities and boost customer loyalty.

Here’s how Web 3 Loyalty programs can change the world of customer loyalty-

– Interoperability

Blockchain interoperability helps in overcoming the barrier of Web 2 loyalty programs which is the restriction of points to specific brands. The Web 3 loyalty programs enable brands to collaborate with each other and allow rewards from one program to be used with another program. For example, loyalty points earned from the airline can be used for hotel stays or as e-commerce vouchers.

– Better Engagement

Web 3 digital rewards enable brands to connect with customers without any third-party traditional intermediaries, which helps in building a community of brand advocates and boosting long-term engagement. By using Web 3 digital rewards, brands can increase loyalty in multiple ways such as better branding, gamification to encourage engagement, creating a sense of exclusivity, and better insights on customer data to tailor their offerings and experiences.

– Personalization

Another good thing about the Web 3 loyalty program is that it enables brands to analyze the on-chain activities of customers and provide more personalized services and experiences. This will not only boost customer engagement but also make them feel valued and understood on a personalized level.

– Immutability

With the immutable nature of blockchain, the Web 3 loyalty programs ensure that the program rules and reward allocations remain consistent and transparent, which helps brands in building long-term trust with customers. Brands can no longer arbitrarily devaluate reward points behind closed doors.

– New Experiences

Web 3 digital rewards represent ownership of a specific item in the blockchain network. This means brands can essentially program anything into the NFT through smart contracts making it a digital collectible, reward, benefits or experiences attached to it. For instance, you can offer digital rewards for event tickets, limited edition products, special vouchers, etc., which will help to incentivize and award specific behavior of customers or give access to exclusive content.

Examples of top Web3 loyalty programs are Starbucks Odyssey, Reddit Collectible Avatars, Adidas Metaverse virtual gear, Lacoste’s UNDW3, etc.

Final Takeaways

As we can see, Web 3 will offer a huge opportunity to transform not just the digital world but the nature of customer loyalty. Brands that are planning to invest and integrate early are the ones that can maximize success in their business journey in the long run. Building Web 3 loyalty solutions will help in embracing change and unlocking new opportunities for many businesses. Additionally, brands using Visa’s Web3 loyalty solution can offer customers a digital wallet enabling them to store their loyalty incentives for online as well as offline travel, sports, and other experiences.

If you are looking for a reliable loyalty solution provider that has expertise in offering Web 3 loyalty-based solutions for different brands across industries, connect with the experts of Novus Loyalty today! Book a demo to see how Novus can help you unlock a tangible business value with a robust Web 3 loyalty strategy.