has the potential to differentiate it from competitors. King is now set to retire in June after successfully stabilising Myer’s sales, returning dividends to shareholders and the board’s announcement of its appointment of Olivia Wirth as its new executive chair, marking a new era for Myer. While Wirth has only been on Myer’s board for a matter of months, her previous role as CEO of Qantas Loyalty has granted her a wealth of expertise in scaling a lucrative loyalty program. Her background in airlines, while not a traditional retail business, is a customer service-focussed industry and hints at Myer’s priorities for its next chapter. Ari Mervis, Myer chairman, said, “Olivia is an experienced and respected leader, with a track record of delivering improved business performance”.  “She transformed Qantas Loyalty into one of Australia’s most successful customer engagement and omni-retail businesses,” he added. Doubling down on Myer One To date, Myer’s customer loyalty program Myer One has over 7 million digitally contactable members and the department store’s fiscal turnaround has been loyalty-led. The Myer board’s choice of Wirth as King’s replacement signals to shareholders and analysts that the department store views its loyalty program as the key to growing sales. “My immediate priorities will be ensuring we are delivering a great in-store experience with a world-class range and best-in-class customer service, while investing in e-commerce and harnessing loyalty and partnerships among our customers and suppliers,” said Wirth. The return on investment from advertising budgets is hard to determine, while the return on investment for loyalty programs is trackable. Philip Shelper, founder and CEO of Loyalty & Reward Co, told Inside Retail, “With the investment they have made in Myer One, they can accurately track the benefits it is delivering, as well as clearly identify the right members to be investing in.” Myer’s FY24 half-year results placed a large emphasis on the ongoing success of the Myer One loyalty program. “It should be no surprise that they want that decision to be known, especially because it should give investors confidence that the program provides a sustainable competitive advantage that is only going to grow in effectiveness,” said Shelper. “They built and scaled a data-first, AI-powered solution to deliver relevant, timely, omnichannel member campaigns that drive exceptional member engagement,” he added.   Shelper maintained that Myer’s is one of the best-performing loyalty programs in the region after developing the ability for individual brands to utilise the program to create their own personalised member campaigns. Loyalty above all else “Loyalty programs are the single most important marketing discipline of the 21st century,” stated Shelper.  He views loyalty programs as the ideal retail tool to build marketing databases, capture data, and deliver personalised communications, offers and experiences, which have the power to boost customer lifetime value.  “CMOs that don’t understand this space should take the time to educate themselves, otherwise they risk providing a disservice to their organisation.” The rise and rise of customer loyalty programs being offered by both individual brands and multi-brand retailers is a reflection of the current economic climate. As consumers are looking to save money and cut down on discretionary purchases they are turning to loyalty programs for deals. “My conversations with a number of the large retail loyalty programs have identified record numbers of members joining programs, but most interestingly, record numbers of lapsed customers re-engaging,” said Shelper. “I believe a big part of Myer’s current success is that, through Myer One, they now truly understand the right consumer demographic to target. It took them 124 years, but they’re now reaping the rewards,” he concluded.