Partnering with Rewards First

July 7, 2011 - PRLog -- With almost every set of retail figures announced this year, the news for the high street gets gloomier still. Whatever the reasons - the VAT rise, concerns about the economy, job prospects, the recent cooler weather - it seems British consumers are just being a bit more careful about their spending.

With May's results now in for retailers, there has been a significant drop in sales which has this time been attributed to the poor weather we had during the month. Trade body, The British Retail Consortium (BRC), says that UK shoppers’ "fundamental reluctance" to spend caused a 2.1% drop in sales in May, compared to the same month last year. In the three months March-May, food sales rose by a relatively low 1.9%, the latest figures show. Non-food sales dropped by 0.4%, with large electronic goods and home improvement suffering particularly. This category was also hit by cooler weather, which meant the usual increases in sales of clothing, footwear and outdoor leisure items simply didn't happen.

As April's figures would have been helped by the royal wedding, extra bank holidays and good weather, the BRC says the May drop shows exactly how much consumer uncertainty there is, and that May's figures are a more realistic reflection of how tough conditions on the high street really are.
The BRC called for interest rates to remain low to help UK retailers cope. However, they did point out that online sales continued to grow strongly, rising 10.4% last month compared to May 2010.

So what can retailers do in the face of such consumer uncertainty? The more opportunities to attract shoppers the better, so one course of action could be to join up with Rewards First. Rewards First is a special retail website which offers its members a quick and efficient service when finding savings and discounts. Customers visit http://www.rewardsfirst.co.uk for its top quality high street and online brand names, with online discount codes for over 650 retailers and hundreds of top quality offers. As well as exclusive offers, Rewards First provides its members with discounts from just about every shopping category imaginable.

These membership products are offered to the customers of Adaptive Affinity partners when they complete a transaction online. The customer is offered the opportunity to try membership for a set time and is offered a free incentive for doing so, such as cash back or a voucher. The customer will have to complete the sign-up form adding in all of their details before they can become a complete member to one of Adaptive Affinity’s membership programmes like Rewards First. They will receive a welcome email notifying them of their log in details and their ability to cancel their membership at any point.

In this way, Adaptive Affinity, and its Rewards First site, has created a unique proposition for its partners, offering a reward to their customers for making a purchase on their site, and also giving them the opportunity to try the membership programmes for free before deciding whether it is for them or not.

This generates incremental revenue for the retail partners at no extra cost, increases traffic to the partner websites through search and display techniques, and increases loyalty while rewarding their customers.
Adaptive Affinity provides partners with the tools necessary to build their business, increase marketing exposure and augment their profits, and membership programmes and services can be specifically tailored to best suit each business’s needs. Adaptive Affinity handles all aspects of the membership programmes and services including all communication with members.

So for retailers looking for extra sales tools to see them through the current consumer spending trough, a partnership with Rewards First could be a sensible addition to the marketing programme.

To take advantage of the top offers available and to join the Rewards First programme please visit http://www.rewardsfirst.co.uk.
Rewards First is an online membership programme, which gives you access to a suite of discounts offered by 100’s of high street retailers.  Rewards First is a membership programme and monthly membership fees are payable after any free promotional period has come to an end.