The report is one in a series on blockchain use cases produced by Deloitte Center for Financial Services. Deloitte is leading the ‘Big 4’ in blockchain research To continue providing news and award winning journalism, we rely on advertising revenue. To continue reading, please turn off your ad blocker or whitelist us . Big four consultancy firm Deloitte has published a report examining how loyalty rewards programmes can be optimised by blockchain-based technology. Customer loyalty programs are not realising their full potential due to low client retention and redemption rates, time delays, and high costs, according to the Deloitte Center for Financial Services. The report finds rewards programmes consist of "fragmented and clunky systems that depend on centralised administration requiring the coordination of multiple parties through trusted intermediaries to move processes along the value chain." Blockchain answers this problem by taking trust out of the process and decentralising it, states Deloitte. The report looks to reducing costs while benefiting the needs of different types and sizes of loyalty rewards programmes, all the while significantly improving customer experience by allowing customers to access most, if not all, of their loyalty rewards programmes in one digital wallet. "We remind you that the most successful application of blockchain until now is Bitcoin, the digital cryptocurrency. In short, loyalty rewards are also a type of digital currency, so it is only natural that the engine that enables Bitcoin to be transacted among multiple parties in exchange for services, goods, and even other monetary tender could do the same for loyalty reward points," declared Deloitte. The report, which is one in a series on blockchain from the Deloitte Center for Financial Services, breaks down into several beneficial areas. 1. Reducing costs Although blockchain incurs upfront expenses, we believe that the trade-off cost savings will […]
