Loyalty Programs for E-commerce in Brazil

Partnerships with loyalty program providers are a viable way to attract more customers and gather more engagement for online stores.

Brazilian Customer Expectations for Loyalty Programs

Though not as large as in countries like the United States, the market for loyalty programs in Brazil has been expanding over recent years. Some analysts point out the economic conditions for the country as one of the main factors responsible for the rise of loyalty programs, and that total revenue for companies in this sector amount for BRL 11 billion.

Research from 2014 by companies ComScore and UPS found that, overall, Brazilian consumers are more interested in benefits such as free shipping, free products and discounts when taking part in loyalty programs. Some of the main factors of interest for loyalty programs found in their survey include:

• Product discounts: 57%
• Free shipping: 53%
• Free products, gift certificates or cashback: 47%
• Exclusive access to sales and promotions: 25%
• Convenience or higher priority service: 17%
• Low cost 1-2 day shipping: 17%

Their survey results indicate that Brazilian consumers are less interested in rewards such as free products than US consumers. Interestingly, the few proprietary loyalty programs available from Brazilian online stores mostly offer benefits along the lines of gift certificates, free products and discounts inside their store.

Largest Loyalty Program Providers in Brazil

A common solution currently adopted by the largest e-commerce websites in the country is partnership with the most popular loyalty program providers in Brazil. The market for loyalty program providers in Brazil, which has historically been associated with mileage rewards for travel tickets, grew 21% in 2014, as is expected to continue to grow as the country’s consumers become more interested in gathering rewards for retail purchases.

These companies work under the coalition loyalty model, which lets customers combine rewards gathered from purchases made from multiple types of outlets. In most cases, the providers offer products as rewards for purchases of airline tickets, online stores and even from insurance contracts, while also integrated with credit card loyalty programs of Brazilian banks.

Multiplus Fidelidade

Established in 2009 as the loyalty program for the Brazilian airline company TAM, Multiplus Fidelidade has expanded in recent years to the point of becoming the largest loyalty program provider in the country. The service has over 12 million users in Brazil and close to 400 partner outlets, which include Brazilian e-commerce giants Magazine Luiza, Walmart, Ponto Frio, Dafiti, Netshoes and Fast Shop.

Smiles

Created in 1994 and publicly trading since 2013, Smiles was at first the loyalty program for Brazilian airline company Varig but was bought by national company Gol. It currently has a user base of over 10 million. Some of their most relevant e-commerce partner websites include Americanas, Centauro and Polishop.

Smiles also owns a significant share of Brazilian loyalty program Netpoints, which has partners in both physical retail and e-commerce, and allows for loyalty points to be exchanged between both programs.

Dotz

Established in 2001, and since 2012 a partner of global leader for loyalty solutions Loyalty One, Brazilian company Dotz has a user base of over 13 million and 250 affiliate stores. Some of their most relevant partners in the e-commerce sector include stores Americanas, Submarino, Walmart, Magazine Luiza, Saraiva and Netshoes.

OPTe

Marketplace OPTe was launched in 2014 by Brazilian payment solutions company CSU, which has for some years developed loyalty programs for companies in the country. Their platform combines an online marketplace for products of multiple stores and loyalty programs, offering rewards that range from products to airline tickets and discounts at partner e-commerce websites. OPTe currently has close to 70 partner stores, including Extra, Ponto Frio, Casas Bahia and Fast Shop.

Cashback Programs

A recent growing trend for the segment of loyalty programs in Brazil is the offering of cashback programs, which work similarly to the ones that offer products as rewards but instead offer customers a monetary sum for certain amounts of accumulated points. Two companies in this segment, Meliuz and Fiel Cashback, have expanded over the last few years and established partnerships with some of the largest online stores in the country.