Myer boss Olivia Wirth overhauls Myer One loyalty program

Olivia Wirth is one of the country’s most successful executives when it comes to loyalty schemes after taking Qantas frequent flyer to new heights. The Myer boss is now relaunching the Myer One loyalty program.

Myer executive chair Olivia Wirth. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Myer One has undergone its biggest overhaul in more than 20 years as the flagship Myer loyalty scheme is remodelled under executive chairwoman Olivia Wirth with new partners and perks.

Ms Wirth, who cut her teeth running the highly successful Qantas frequent flyer program before joining Myer, said loyalty remains a “key pillar or plank” for retailers and more so in the current trading environment.

“It’s how you engage with customers, and it’s an invaluable way to better understand what your customers like and what they don’t like,” Ms Wirth told The Australian on Monday.

Myer One members can earn points shopping at Myer’s newly acquired apparel brands Just Jeans, Jay Jays, Portmans, Dotti, Jacqui E as well as its fashion labels Sass & Bide, Marcs, and David Lawrence.

“From a data perspective, it gives you great insights into consumer behaviour. It allows you to personalise offers. It allows you to attract new customers into your retail ecosystem. So it doesn’t matter whether you’re looking at better understanding customer behaviour, encouraging cross shop, or really determining what’s the best way to communicate, the loyalty platform gives you great insight into your customer, and also, importantly, it really helps retention.”

Myer One, one of the largest loyalty schemes in the country with 4.7 million active members, is acting just as David Jones inks new deals and showcases new rewards, while other groups such as Wesfarmers, Coles and Woolworths dazzle shoppers with competing loyalty offerings.

Myer boss Olivia Wirth is looking to attract more shoppers with its new-look loyalty program. Picture: Dan Himbrechts/AAP Image

Myer One members will have the ability to redeem points much closer to when they are earned. Members will be able to receive rewards quicker, and use their $10 reward 24 hours after earning credits rather than at the end of each quarter.

Also from November, Myer will enlarge the universe of partners: Dan Murphy’s, Door Dash, Pet Barn, MyCar and flower and gift store Lvly by linking their Visa or MasterCard via the Myer One app.

The tiers available that trigger rewards points has also been lowered by more than half, to generate easier hurdles for Myer One cardholders. The general member tier has been lowered to an annual spend of $0 to $749, from $0 to $1499, silver membership is now $750 to $2499 (previously annual spend of $1500 to $5999) and gold membership was an annual spend of more than $6000 and is now $2500.

Ms Wirth said she has “replatformed” the Myer One loyalty scheme, which will be a win for shoppers, suppliers and shareholders.

“We put in a loyalty management system, and this gives us more flexibility. It means that we can personalise offers. It means that we can provide specific promotions to our customers. It means that we can work with our suppliers in a more in depth way.

“So it’s great for acquisition of customers as well, and it also means that we can use the data at a more optimised level, which means that you’re ultimately going to deliver benefits for the business and for the shareholders as well.”

Ms Wirth said the changes to Myer One were partly based on feedback from its own customers.

“It was really clear that the members love the simplicity of the program. They like how simple it was. They felt that they were rewarded, but there are also opportunities for us to improve, which is what we’ve based the reset or the relaunch on today, which is about new ways to earn, more timely rewards, better tiers, which are attainable, more specific rewards in relation to beauty.

“So this is a theme that you’ll see over the next 12 to 24 months, is how do we bring you new partners into the program? We’ve obviously expanded across apparel brands. We’ve got really important partnerships with Commonwealth Bank, American Express and Virgin airlines and Velocity, but this is an area of growth for us. So this is not a set and forget. You’ll see the program continue to evolve.”

Turning to trading, Ms Wirth said the financial year had started better than last year and although there was growing confidence, it remained “patchy”. She said Myer was now focused on Black Friday sales.