#134: Rakuten Rewards (Short Show Summary)

PAULA: Welcome to Let’s Talk Loyalty, an industry podcast for Loyalty Marketing Professionals.

PAULA: I’m your host, Paula Thomas, and if you work in Loyalty Marketing, join me every week to learn the latest ideas from Loyalty Specialists around the world.

PAULA: This episode is brought to you by Epsilon and their award-winning People Cloud Loyalty Solution.

PAULA: I’m always delighted to have Epsilon on board as a sponsor.

PAULA: And particularly today, as they were just named a leader in the Forrester Wave Loyalty Solutions Q2 2021 report, with the top score in the current offering category.

PAULA: This report is designed to help you as marketeers find the perfect partner for your loyalty program.

PAULA: So to download your copy of the report, visit epsilon.com forward slash letstalkloyalty.

PAULA: Hello and welcome to episode 134 of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

PAULA: As president of one of the world’s largest cashback programs called Rakuten Rewards, Kristen Gall is the self-confessed retail geek who leads this 15 million member program across North America.

PAULA: Previously known as Ebates, Rakuten Rewards business model is based on the power of affiliate marketing to drive customers to brands and stores across popular online categories like fashion and beauty.

PAULA: And in recent years has even extended to offline stores, restaurants and other direct to consumer purchase behaviors that have been increasingly adopted over the 20 years this business has been operating.

PAULA: Rakuten Rewards is truly now a giant in the world of e-commerce with the simple business model of asking online shoppers to start their purchase journey on the Rakuten website, which then connects them with over 3,500 stores.

PAULA: If they do, Rakuten Rewards earns commission for every purchase that’s made on those merchant partner websites.

PAULA: And then it shares half of it directly back with those members.

PAULA: To date, they have paid back nearly an incredible $2 billion to members.

PAULA: What a superb way to drive customer loyalty, which Kristen described as giving out money for a living.

PAULA: Like any great loyalty proposition, it’s a win for the consumer, a win for the merchant, and also a win for the platform that connects these customers to these merchants day in and day out.

PAULA: Kristen talked me through the power of the eBay business, from its humble beginnings in Silicon Valley in the first technology boom, through to a business that is still seeing double-digit growth every year, through a number of recessions, the pandemic, and even the acquisition and rebrand in 2014 by the Japanese company Rakuten, officially known in the West as the Amazon of Japan, who bought the business as a way to expand its global reach.

PAULA: Another great marketing strategy that Kristen shared is some of the incredible sponsorship assets that Rakuten has partnered with around the world.

PAULA: FC Barcelona, Live Nation, the company that operate Ticketmaster and Arena Services, the NBA, and the Golden State Warriors basketball team in San Francisco, as well as working with American Express to allow members to convert their cashback to membership rewards.

PAULA: Whether it’s building brand awareness, brand love, or brand loyalty, it was clear that everything Rakuten Rewards does comes from what Kristen calls a maniacal focus on customers.

PAULA: Truly obsessing about what customers buy and why they buy, which of course is empowered by the purchase data that Rakuten Rewards has access to across its 3,500 merchant partnerships.

PAULA: And all of this supported by commitment to always being generous with customers so that they simply keep coming back.

PAULA: Our final topic was of course to understand the massive shifts in consumer behaviour as the pandemic continued.

PAULA: No longer of course interested by fashion and beauty to the same extent.

PAULA: Spending shifted firstly to marketplaces, like Amazon for home essentials, and then of course to taking care of our homes.

PAULA: Buying furniture to build our home offices and finding ways to feed and educate our children and also our pets in ways we hadn’t had to figure out before.

PAULA: It’s a super inspiring story of the power of Loyalty Points, partnerships, a great brand and this incredible maniacal focus on customers that has enabled Rakuten Rewards to grow its brand recognition from just 7% when eBay was acquired to 65% at the time we recorded in May 2020.

PAULA: Absolutely fantastic.

PAULA: So if you’d like to enjoy even more of these extraordinary insights and the power of affiliate marketing and cash back as a model to drive customer loyalty, you can listen to the full interview.

PAULA: It’s episode 36 on letstalkloyalty.com.

PAULA: This show is sponsored by The Wise Marketeer, the world’s most popular source of loyalty marketing news, insights and research.

PAULA: The Wise Marketeer also offers loyalty marketing training through its Loyalty Academy, which has already certified over 170 executives in 20 countries as certified loyalty marketing professionals.

PAULA: For more information, check out thewisemarketeer.com and loyaltyacademy.org.

PAULA: Thanks so much for listening to this episode of Let’s Talk Loyalty.

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