You obviously know that effective digital loyalty programs help retain valuable customers and business partners. But can they enable you to predict demand trends? Oh yes!

Just imagine you found out that a majority of your customers and channel partners buy a particular product during a specific season. On the other hand, you also found out that they don’t buy the same product in the same volume in a different period. So, what do you need to do?

You need to ensure that you have an adequate supply of the products during the peak time so that you can fulfill the demands of your customers and business partners. You also need to keep just the right level of stock during the lean season so that you can reduce wastage and warehousing costs.

This is where you can leverage your B2C and B2B loyalty programs to efficiently predict demand trends and remain prepared for the peak and lean seasons. If you want to know how a sophisticated channel loyalty program or customer loyalty program can help you forecast demand trends, then this blog post is just for you.

At LoyaltyXpert, we not only helped our clients in retaining many of their valuable customers and channel partners, but we’ve also helped them in predicting demand trends with accurate data. In this blog post, we have mentioned the ways high-quality loyalty programs can help in predicting demand trends. Read on to know more.

1. Access to accurate data

Let’s face it; a whopping majority of businesses struggle to access relevant and accurate data. There are many studies to prove it. For instance, a study conducted by Harvard Business Review found that just three percent of companies that participated in the study had accurate data within an acceptable range. Another survey by Microstrategy found that 90 percent of executives depend on others to make data-driven decisions. And a Gartner study found that just one in every five analytics-based initiatives will ever be successful.

All these stats are not only worrying but highlight the reason why a majority of businesses need to level up the way they collate and analyze data. You need accurate data to make accurate predictions. And that’s where a sophisticated loyalty platform like LoyaltyXpert can be extremely helpful. Our intuitive platform provides 100 percent accurate data and helps in making data-driven decisions.

2. Effective collection of zero-party and first-party data

A sophisticated loyalty platform not only provides access to accurate data but also facilitates the collection of zero-party and first-party data. Both types of data are regarded as the most reliable and accurate type. In the case of zero-party data, customers share their personal information willingly. A customer experience survey conducted by Genesys found that 39 percent of 5,000 participants were willing to share their data if they received some rewards, while 20 percent of the participants were interested in product discounts.

Zero-party and first-party data cover everything from the demographic details of customers and business partners to the purchase amount, time and frequency of the purchase, total interactions, as well as feedback and reviews. Both data types come in handy in making accurate demand forecasts and sales predictions.

3. Identification of buying patterns and previous trends

Data accessed and collected through loyalty programs provide a clear understanding of the buying patterns of customers and business partners. Apart from that, when customers and channel partners make a purchase and access loyalty points from their mobile devices, businesses can get the data of the location from where they bought the product, the day and time of the purchase, the quantity of the product, and much more information that helps in understanding buying patterns.

Apart from that, businesses can leverage loyalty programs to track and monitor user preferences, trends, and behaviors in real time. Past sales data can help in the projection of future demand. A cutting-edge loyalty platform can help in the efficient management and analysis of all critical data.

4. Data monitoring and report generation

By using an advanced loyalty platform, you can monitor all important data as well as generate a wide range of reports on various KPIs (key performance indicators). An effective loyalty program can also define trends based on various qualitative and quantitative data. You can also leverage demand planning tools and forecasting calculators to generate more precise forecasts.

Moreover, well-designed loyalty programs can prevent fraudulent activities as well as miscalculations resulting from loyalty fraud.

In a nutshell,

Loyalty programs can be extremely useful in tracking buying behavior and forecast changes in the market. Many successful businesses are leveraging well-designed loyalty programs to project demand trends and ensure adequate supply during peak and lean seasons. By using the right loyalty program, you can predict demand trends and optimize your production.

At LoyaltyXpert, we create high-quality loyalty programs that not only help our clients to retain the loyalty of their customers, channel partners, and influencers but also leverage buying behavior data and predict demand trends. If you want to know how we can help, contact us or book a free demo today.