When it comes to developing a loyalty program, the first — and probably most important — step should always be to pick a loyalty technology provider that matches your business. Many companies overlook the importance of vendor selection, yet knowing the difference between a pure-play loyalty provider and a customer data platform could push the effectiveness of your reward program to the next level.
Antavo is listed as a Representative Vendor in Gartner’s 2020 Market Guide for Loyalty Management, so let us give you expert advice about pure-play loyalty providers, and for whom they are recommended.
What Is a Pure-Play Loyalty Vendor?
In the world of loyalty programs, pure-play refers to a specific group of providers that are characterized by their strong focus on loyalty technology. When dealing with a pure-play loyalty vendor, expect a sophisticated loyalty engine, fit with extended consumer data integration and dedicated loyalty account management, as well as various add-ons, such as gamified profiling, machine learning algorithm and offer management.
What’s the Difference Between Pure-Play Loyalty Providers, Customer Data Platforms and Loyalty Management Service Providers?
In short, the key difference between the three loyalty providers is their approach to loyalty technology.
- Customer Data Platforms (CDP) offer top-of-the-line integrations, segmentation and data analysis, but loyalty is only a side module.
- Loyalty Management Services (LMS) aim to help you run the loyalty program efficiently, selling a bundled set of services that make management, execution and optimization easier.
- Pure-play loyalty providers focus exclusively on loyalty technology, thus offering the most sophisticated solutions and the most unique customer experience.
However, the trio differs in other aspects as well. For instance, CDPs generally specialize in eCommerce loyalty programs, and the implementation is relatively quick. However, they won’t run the campaigns for you, meaning that managing the program is entirely up to you. An LMS provider is more expensive, but in exchange offers a high level of convenience through its specialized agency team who has deep knowledge about performance optimization.
Introducing a pure-play loyalty solution requires more planning, but if you wish to be at the forefront with a reward program that acts as a true differentiator for your brand, then it’s definitely a worthy consideration. Pure-play loyalty providers are also recommended in case you wish to control the program internally through your own dedicated expert.
Offering Next-Gen Solutions as a Pure-Play Loyalty Management Vendor
It’s worth highlighting that despite their similar nature, pure-play loyalty providers all have their own set of features. If you wish to compare them on equal footing, download this helpful comparison worksheet to make your research even more efficient.
As for Antavo, we pride ourselves on being a torchbearer when it comes to innovation:
- We’ve long been advocating the benefits of rewarding both transactional and non-transactional customer actions to foster true brand love
- Antavo’s technology is geared toward omnichannel sentiment, helping companies bridge the gap between offline and online customer activity and avoid siloing customer data
- Our robust and secure platform was designed to be easily manageable by the end user, with little to no IT knowledge required
- We’ve developed in-house an intuitive enrollment device for brick-and-mortars and a Mobile Wallet solution to engage the mobile-loving generation
- We’re well-versed in the nuances of loyalty program types, offering seven different approaches to choose from, including coalition programs
- Our dedicated account managers and loyalty strategists aim to help your team reach the full potential of your loyalty program
- In terms of product capabilities, Antavo offers enterprise-grade offer management, machine-learning Loyalty AI, gamified profiling, incentivized social media contests, online & in-store treasure hunts and extended reporting capabilities
- Despite being a pure-play loyalty program provider, Antavo still integrates with a veritable list of technology providers, including Salesforce, Shopify, dotdigital, Exponea, Listrak, Epos Now, Oracle and Microsoft Azure
- We’ve been recognized multiple times by global award committees, including the eCommerce Awards of Excellence, Drapers Digital Awards and the Glossy Awards
Take Your First Steps Towards Customer Loyalty
If implemented with care and precision, loyalty programs can be extremely powerful customer retention tools that are capable of moving a wide range of business KPIs, such as customer lifetime value, social media virality, in-store footfall and more.
If you wish to learn more about launching a customer loyalty program on our Loyalty Management Platform, spark up a conversation and we’ll demonstrate our prowess to you.
