Marks & Spencer will relaunch an overhauled Sparks loyalty scheme next week after making changes in response to customer views.
These include abandoning points in favour of instant rewards “to deliver immediate and clearer value” and more personalised offers.
The revamp, spearheaded by Marks & Spencer chief digital and data officer Jeremy Pee, will go live on July 9 with the customer promise that “good things happen every time you shop”. A range of new good causes will benefit from the scheme.
The Sparks relaunch is another step in M&S’ ambitions to become a digital-first business and follows feedback from 250,000 scheme members and “road testing” by 40,000 M&S staff.
There will be an updated app, integrated with M&S’ online proposition. During lockdown, M&S’ digital business has grown. Approximately 365,000 existing customers shopped on M&S.com for the first time and there have been 700,000 new downloads of its app since March.
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Pee said: “Sparks is a vital part of how we communicate with over 7 million of our most engaged M&S shoppers, and we have designed this relaunch around them.
“With a digital-first approach, it’s simpler and easier to use but also builds our relationship with customers through a more personalised experience.
“We’ve injected a new sense of excitement and value and made the features they love even better while stripping out the points and tiers system they found confusing.
“It will instantly feel more rewarding and customers can be confident that good things will happen every time they shop with us, from winning their M&S shopping basket for free on the spot to a donation to the cause that matters most to them.”
The retailer said the relaunch would be a “critical enabler to fast-forwarding M&S’ growth as digitally and data-enabled business”.
It added: “The Sparks reset is an important part of M&S becoming a data-driven business, with the business seeking to unite four important data sources including Sparks, M&S.com, M&S Bank and soon Ocado, in order to drive greater improvements and personalised experiences for all customers.”
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