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PORTLAND, Maine — ZipLine, a leading mobile payment and rewards technology platform, announced on Thursday the findings of a new survey on payment and loyalty. Conducted by Google in July, the national survey—entitled “Payment Trends in the United States“—analyzed a sample of 500 adults in the Millennial and GenX categories.
Consumers seek immediate rewards, exclusive perks and long-term value, according to ZipLine survey.
Here are the key implications:
Both Millennials and GenXers prefer to shop from merchants who offer rewards programs. Over 70% of GenX men and women are more likely to shop with merchants that offer rewards programs. This is also true for more than 60% of Millennial men. Merchants have several options today for strengthening consumer relationships such as awarding points, “surprise & delight” offers, fuel discounts, and clubs.
Younger consumers seek immediate rewards, exclusive perks, and long-term value. Millennial males look for a balance between immediate rewards and long-term value, with 30 percent prioritizing immediate rewards and 30 percent finding long-term value to be most important. Millennial women also seek immediate rewards, followed by exclusive perks. For 45% of GenX women, immediate rewards are the most important, while 20 percent primarily seek out exclusive perks.
Consumers — especially women — prefer debit for everyday spending. For transactions between $10 and $250, more than 45% of the respondents prefer debit payments over credit (37%) and cash (18%). This is especially true for women, over half of whom prefer debit payments to credit on a daily basis. With a growing preference for debit, merchants can spend less on interchange fees and start redirecting their savings towards loyalty programs that build their brand and increase sales.
“Our research suggests that rewards combined with debit payment remain largely an untapped market,” said ZipLine CMO Kristen Bailey. “This is great news for retailers, who are eager to put the profits traditionally eaten away by interchange fees to better use: Inspiring customer loyalty.”
