Online retailer Rakuten has expanded its loyalty programme to third party retailers, with the effect that Super Points can now be earned at partners including Waterstones, Zavvi, TK Maxx, Asos and more than 200 other retailers when shopping through Rakuten.co.uk.
Customers in the UK and Spain will now be able to collect and use points towards purchases at third-party retailers. UK shoppers can then use those points to buy credit to use both online and offline at retailers including Tesco, M&S, Currys.
They initially introduced its global loyalty rewards programme, Super Points, over 15 years ago and it has proven to be a huge success in its Japanese home market, where it has become the most used loyalty point scheme. That has driven adoption and loyalty to the brand over the years.
Arden van de Vall is the President of the company in Europe and says: “Rakuten is a membership company and Rakuten Super Points are at its centre. Each Rakuten service owes a large part of its success to being part of the bigger ecosystem and its over 1 billion members. In Europe, this ecosystem will also be our key to success, and by opening up our loyalty scheme to third party retailers, we are taking a major step towards that.”
As we reported in the middle of last year, they opted to close their marketplace operations in the UK. They said at the time: “In an email to partners, Patrick Kelly, UK Marketplace Country Manager writes: “We regret to inform you that following a strategic review of its operations in Europe, Rakuten has decided to consider plans to close Rakuten.co.uk at the end of August. This is part of a European business review aimed at ensuring that Rakuten is able to redevelop our offer to match customer and merchant expectations in an ever-changing market.”
