Effective rewards programs drive traffic to online shopping sites, thereby decreasing customer acquisition costs. In addition, they encourage more loyal customers by rewarding them for spending time on a merchant's site, taking surveys and making purchases. And, the benefits of the program last all year round. Consumers can choose to redeem their rewards for Christmas gifts for friends and family or redeem their rewards in January for relevant items like gas and groceries when they are struggling to pay off their holiday bills. However, folks like KB Toys are headed in the right direction.
Customers can purchase on-line and return items in local stores if needed.
Others like JCPenny won't allow customers to do this and this is totally absurd. BandM and clicks work well together. Which is a big step forward for consumers. The offline and online systems will converge over time but not soon. But it is a logical step and will likely give the small guy as good a chance in competition because their integration jobs will likely be easier as many will simply start from scratch as they have no legacy systems.