Seyi Omogiate & Willy Hannes Engelbrecht

Abstract

Loyalty reward programmes have proven to be a reliable marketing strategy for most South African retailers. The actual influence and impact of loyalty reward programmes require further insight, especially in low-income communities. The aim of this study is to assess how low-income consumers’ buying behaviour is influenced by loyalty reward programmes in the Buffalo City Metropolitan. The study adopted a positivist philosophical approach that employed a quantitative research design to gather data from consumers registered as loyalty reward members at various supermarket retailers in the Buffalo City Metropolitan. Purposive sampling enabled the collection of 164 completed questionnaires. An exploratory factor analysis identified five factors, followed by a regression analysis to determine the effects of each predictor variable on the dependent variable. While loyalty reward programmes positively influence some consumers, retailers need to adapt and reposition these programmes to allow low-income communities to benefit more from them.