Impact of loyalty programs on relationship benefits and customer loyalty: A customer perspective

In recent years, loyalty program as an important means of relationship marketing, has been highly concerned by scholars and enterprises. However, there are many problems when execute the loyalty program. The traditional loyalty program only focus on short-term economic profits is clearly needed to be improved. This paper explores the impact of loyalty programs on relationship benefits and customer loyalty based on the theoretical foundations of the three concepts and the relationship among them. It establishes the impact model with the framework of loyalty program - relationship benefits - customer loyalty. This structure model and relevant hypotheses are tested by data from a survey among 210 VIP customers of a large department store. The findings of this article are directions for future research and managerial implications.