Loyalty cards as a form of sales promotion for retail chains and their impact on customers

This article deals with a comprehensive of the loyalty program as such, in terms of its functionality and impact on retail customers. The aim of the work is to evaluate the benefits of loyalty cards, customer motivation to purchase and the impact on sales. Furthermore, to assess whether the loyalty program pays off for retailers and which of them offer the most advantageous benefits. With the help of data analysis resulting from a questionnaire survey, the influence of loyalty cards on customers and their regularity in use is determined. Most customers own a loyalty card only because of a possible benefit or reward. However, their frequency of use is mostly exceptional or up to once a week. The comparison method used compares selected retailers to determine the best offer. Using this method, we achieved results show that the retail store Kaufland offers the largest number of benefits in its loyalty program. Together with the Lidl retail store, it offers a large number of benefits, but Lidl's offer seems to be the most advantageous for customers. The SWOT analysis provided results on strengths and weaknesses, including opportunities and threats to retail as such and its loyalty programs. The resulting proposal for retail is the defensive strategy of Terno supermarket and the escape strategy for their loyalty program. The benefit of the work are the results and evaluation of useful loyalty programs for customers, which are based on data. Also, the clarification of the overall benefits of shopping at certain retail stores and the convenience of shopping.