The urge to splurge has been tapped into by many B2C (business-to-consumer) businesses. Loyalty programs keep the regular clientele of stores coming back for more. It works well for both parties – the people who love to shop till they drop and obviously, the stores themselves.

After all, putting together reward/loyalty programs takes effort and time but if your merchandise is of an inferior quality or despite the discount the membership card entitles you to, they seem steeply priced in comparison to items sourced by a rival store, then smart shoppers are going to ditch the reward membership card. For eg: At Lifestyle, a pair of khaki shorts is priced at an outrageous Rs 800 while I’ve picked up full length formal trousers in a wrinkle-free cotton-satin fabric, for the same amount at Westside, two years ago.

Here quality was not an issue but who is going to pay Rs 800 for a truncated pair of pants? Maybe Lifestyle’s reward card – Inner Circle – members really don’t care about the price factor at all and just want to be seen with Lifestyle’s shopping bags rather than say, Westside or Pantaloons. But for my money, I’d rather buy full-length khaki trousers and wear them for a few years and then crop them into shorts eventually, which is what I’ve done in the past. I’ve used the same tactic, as probably have many others, with any pair of jeans that was too faded or worn out to wear outdoors but just comfortable enough to wear at home.

If this is the case of s prêt store like Lifestyle, then there are high-end stores which also, from the look of things in their store windows, overprice items and sell them to their loyal shoppers. You’ve only got to look at the cotton skirts at Marks & Spencer to realize you get much better and cheaper stuff on Colaba Causeway or on Hill Road, Bandra (in Mumbai).

Ever seen the display in the Versace window at INOX, Nariman Point. They flaunted such mediocre stuff that I was never tempted to go in and look at their label…or ask the price of the outfits. One reason being, I don’t want to die of a heart attack at a young age. The other being, I know where you can pick up better clothes at a more reasonable place in Breach Candy – a one-time shopping mecca for people with money and before these big label stores came up to pull wool over our eyes. I’d rather buy Versace crockery than those outfits with my money. No wonder that place shut down.

A source in the real estate business told me that the Poonawalla family – yes the horse-breeders and Derby enthusiasts who flaunt Ferraris and Lamborghinis and should have known their brands well, were in fact cheated by the people who licensed the Versace brand to them. They palmed off outdated stock to the Versace outlet here in Mumbai and customers were not being fooled about it. More power to us! So, I was right when I walked past that display window with complete indifference. The same thing has happened to Escada, another really top designer brand worn by people like Princess Diana.

A friend who travels abroad quite a bit told me that Marks & Spencer is also a has-been brand in the UK and a lot of their range in India is also not quite the current season. This is a brand that is desperately trying to recapture the magic they used to enjoy years earlier, where if you were seen toting their shopping bags, you were considered classy. So, if you want to buy the absolute latest from Marks & Spencer, then even their original store in the UK is willing to send stuff to us in India with standard delivery charges reduced to £10.

Anyway, most readymade garment stores in India are – and have been for some time now – importing clothes from Bangkok, Thailand, Korea and Spain. I’ve bought amazing imported clothes from a store called Breach Candy Boutique for years and which I later find some celeb wearing with a much bigger brand label attached to it.

Clothing and accessories brands like Guess and Mango also don’t have any reward program in place. When contacted, a Guess store employee said they were thinking about starting something, but when are they going to do it is anyone’s guess – pun unintended! Lladro also has nothing for regulars who are fans of their beautiful porcelain figurines, which I think is a shame. I would love to sign up for their ‘buy one and get one free’ offer if they ever came up with something like that! Their Lladro range sells from Rs 6,000 onward and their Nao range sells for Rs 1,000 onward. So, may be pairing one with the other could do wonders.

Marks and Spencer has just introduced a spiffy looking M&S card recently.

The enrollment process is very simple. All you need to join is spend Rs 2,500.

Their website gives these details:

• For every purchase of Rs 100, you earn 1 point.
  Every point you earn is equivalent to Re.1.
• You also earn points for purchases made on discounted items.
• The reward points you earn reflect within a short span of 7 days and can be redeemed against further purchases at their stores.
• You can start redeeming your points once you have accumulated a minimum of 50 points, after which you can redeem them in denominations of Rs 50. 
• This program is valid in India only.

 Benefits

• Refer a friend and earn points. Help a friend discover the privileged world of the    M&S Club and earn an extra 50 points.
• Birthday/anniversary offers: You can look forward to treating yourself with a special 10% discount on all Marks & Spencer merchandise on these days. This does not include the sale merchandise.
• Special Invitations: As a part of the extended Marks & Spencer family, you can look forward to some special invites.  

Here is more information on the Swarovski Reward Program. When contacted, their representative Divya Bakshi e-mailed me these salient points.

Swarovski Crystal Society (SCS) members enjoy a whole range of special benefits: 

Members may join the SCS for either 1 or 3 years. Membership begins with payment of the membership fee and expires automatically at the end of the chosen period.  Several weeks before your membership expires you will receive a notification along with an application to renew your membership. There is no obligation to purchase any Swarovski articles.

To become a member, simply carry out the following steps:

You can fill the application form which is available at the SCS retail outlet along with the membership fees and submit it to your selected SCS retailer, where the membership can get processed.

The token membership fees to join the society is as follows:

·         INR 2,750 for one year membership

·         INR 5,000 for three year membership

·         INR 2,400 for one year renewal/ rejoin

·         INR 4,500 for a three year renewal/ rejoin

Membership benefits:
• For a Rs. 500 annual membership fee, you will Save 10%* on all purchases, ninth, thirteenth qualifying purchases from The Body Shop store in India for one year.
• Receive awards with 3rd, 6th, 9th, 13th qualifying purchases* *.
• After the third & sixth qualifying purchases receive a Rs. 250 & Rs. 350 Gift Voucher respectively.
• After the ninth & thirteenth qualifying purchases receive a Rs. 500 & Rs. 1000 Gift Voucher respectively.
• Special & exclusive offers by email. Exclusive updates on what's happening at our shops, Special offers on new launches and select ranges, every month, exclusive member events.

* Valid on regular-priced items only.
** One stamp for each qualifying purchase of atleast Rs. 2000. 

The above stated Love Your Body™ benefits are only applicable in India.

Such loyalty/reward programs are being designed by websites like this one

http://www.netcarrots.net/net/services/customer-loyalty-programs.aspx among many. So, the expertise is available to get a program going. In the West, they are far ahead in this game. Some like Virgin and Tesco are keeping in touch with their loyal customers via customized mobile phone applications, which in turn is generating revenues for them. So much so, that Virgin’s mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), Sprint bought their US MVNO business for $483 million. So, how does one do this?

• You could just build lots of mobile applications and distribute them to all your members (Thereby adding to the costs of managing the program), or

• You could turn your Loyalty Program Cost Center into a Profit Center by offering your customers the opportunity to sign up to your branded mobile phone network.

To begin with, the loyalty program operator has already resolved the customer acquisition and retention problem. They also have an effective customer service and billing platform. The challenge for the operator of the loyalty program is to add value to that customer loyalty by providing them with goods and services, which will help keep the customer sticky and more profitable.

Mobile phones add value, deliver a new revenue stream and provide the perfect platform for mobile communications and mobile web commerce applications. Properly implemented and managed, the SmartPhone not only becomes the perfect customer loyalty platform, it can also add to a retailer’s bottomline.

My guess is that, the reality in India is quite different. These brands have the snazzy showrooms but they don’t get all that much business to justify coming up with a loyalty program for the let’s say, average number of 50 customers they may be seeing in a month, who walk into their store. May be, even this number is on the higher side and besides even out of those 50 people, a lot of them just browse and walk away – I do it. Such brands often see more people window-shopping outside their store than people actually plunking down hard cash, inside the store. 

There has also been the lurking suspicion by many, that old stuff was being retailed by these brands in India, especially when it came to clothes. So, with customers not being satisfied with second rate stuff, the glamour brands just couldn’t get any mileage. Besides with the rich people’s patronage going unappreciated (the ones who made the mistake of shopping for these brands in India), it’s no wonder that big brands in India like Versace, Escada, Frazer & Haws and probably many others, have fallen flat on their face.