79% of Consumers Have at Least 1 Commerce Relationship With Merchants

Commerce relationships — including retail subscriptions, memberships and loyalty programs — are extremely popular with consumers. In fact, 79% of all consumers have at least one of these commerce relationships with merchants, and 17% have all three, according to “Relationship Commerce,” a PYMNTS and Ordergroove collaboration based on a survey of 2,826 consumers.

Get the report: Relationship Commerce

When we talk about “commerce relationships,” we mean tools that merchants can use to strengthen and deepen relationships with their customers. Other examples include on-demand ordering, predictive ordering and event-based orders.

Consumers believe the key benefits of having commerce relationships with merchants are deals or discounts, free products and access to benefits such as free shipping. That’s true among those with retail subscriptions, those with memberships and those in loyalty programs.

Among consumers with retail subscriptions, 26% consider free products to be the most important benefits brands can offer, 25% say the same of discounts or deals and 15% say it of access to benefits such as free shipping.

The share of consumers with memberships who consider discounts or deals to be most important is 28%.

These consumers’ preferred benefits also include free products and access to benefits such as free shipping, with 24% and 22%, respectively, of consumers with memberships citing those features.

For consumers in loyalty programs, too, discounts or deals, free products and access to benefits such as free shipping top the wish list — those benefits are cited by 35%, 29% and 12%, respectively, of these consumers.

PYMNTS’ data shows deals and discounts are one of the most potent tools brands can use to reward new customers and expand and strengthen their relationships existing ones.