Over half of consumers globally (53 per cent) believe it is more important to shop with local businesses now than it was before the pandemic. That’s according to new research released by Pollinate, the global software business that partners with banks to help them deepen and extend relationships with their business customers, in which over 4,500 consumers were surveyed across the UK, US, Australia, and Brazil.
The report, Making Loyalty Work for Small Businesses, which was conducted in February and March 2021, sought to explore how local businesses could more effectively engage with consumers and encourage them to shop locally. It found that although consumers would like to support local businesses, 53 per cent of consumers want them to offer loyalty programs as an incentive to purchase.
The Covid-19 pandemic has led to an increase in support for SMEs from consumers
The extent to which consumers in these different markets believe it is more important varies by country. Brazil tops the charts with considering it more important to support local since the pandemic (65 per cent) vs. the UK as least (46 per cent). Millennials and Gen X are especially supportive of small businesses, with 49 per cent and 47 per cent respectively citing shopping local as “very or extremely important”, and nearly half of all surveyed consumers (45 per cent) having shopped at local businesses in the last 30 days.
The principal drivers behind consumers wanting to support local businesses include reinvesting in local economies (45 per cent), keeping money in the community (44 per cent), and driving job growth in the community (43 per cent).
But supporting local means small businesses must embrace loyalty schemes
Historically, offering loyalty schemes for small businesses has been difficult and expensive, requiring an investment in technology and staff training, while typically not delivering enough value to customers. In fact, while over half of consumers surveyed (53 per cent) want local businesses to offer loyalty programs, a quarter are not interested because they feel they would not get enough value out of such programs for them to be worthwhile. By not offering loyalty schemes, small businesses could be missing out on roughly 277 million shoppers.
Consumers’ demands for loyalty offerings are unsurprising with discounts topping the list as something 70 per cent of consumers desire, followed by cash back (55 per cent) and free products (50 per cent).
Banks are in an ideal position to help SMEs with offering loyalty
The research showed that banks are 2.5x more trusted with consumers’ transactional data than Google, Apple, or Facebook, meaning they are in a unique position with access to a wealth of data to support small businesses with delivering loyalty schemes.
During the pandemic, banks were a key distribution channel for fiscal support for SMEs, but the data banks can provide may be as valuable as the capital. Almost three quarters of consumers (72 per cent) interested in using a local business’ loyalty program trust and want banks (55 per cent) or card networks (45 per cent), such as Mastercard, to deliver them.
Consumers are also interested in loyalty schemes run by the local merchants themselves (59 per cent), creating an ideal partnership opportunity between the banks and their business customers through a payment card-linked loyalty app enabled by banks, and owned by merchants.
Fiona Roach Canning, co-founder at Pollinate said: “Small businesses are at the heart of communities and the economy. It’s incredibly important that they are continued to be supported – especially as they work to rebuild and regenerate through the aftermath of the recent pandemic. Having access to the same tools and assets large retailers have traditionally taken advantage of levels the playing field for small businesses. It will allow them to continue nurturing the personal relationships they are able to build that sets them apart in an up-to-date and digital way.
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