Barclaycard is to overhaul its loyalty strategy by putting retailers at the heart of a new scheme, which will in part replace its Freedom programme – scrapped in May after just two years.
The company is in the process of signing up partner businesses for the scheme through a dedicated portal, ahead of an expected launch next year.
It will be open to any retailer in the UK and, unlike other daily deal services, the firm claims the merchant will be in control, able to target offers, drive business goals and measure the results.
Dubbed Barclaycard Bespoke Offers, deals and offers will be tailored to consumers’ age, income and spending behaviour.
Barclays and Barclaycard customers will be required to sign up for the service to use their data, and be asked to provide information on their interests. Non-cardholders are expected to be able to sign up once the service has gone live.
A Barclaycard spokeswoman said: “We believe there is a big opportunity in the offers space, with merchants’ and consumers’ needs not being met by current suppliers.”
Freedom, which allowed users to accrue points by spending money with Shell, Npower, and PizzaExpress was pulled earlier this year. Barclaycard said that the decision had been taken “in the light of a changing rewards market” although it is thought that poor take-up – only 1 million out of a possible 8 million customers signed up – was to blame.
Barclays has since launched two new cards, Barclaycard Cashback and Barclaycard Freedom Rewards; both designed to make it easier for customers to get value and rewards on their everyday spend, without changing the way they shop.
Earlier this month, Barclays pooled its UK consumer direct marketing account into Rapp, marking a return to the agency which lost the majority of the business to EHS 4D in 2010.
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