Nectar cards are used by half of the households in the UK, making the scheme an important strategic tool for monitoring customer shopping and spending behaviors. The cards can be used at supermarkets, petrol stations and a number of other locations around the UK.
According to IT Weekly, Loyalty Management Group (LMG), which already sells data analysis services to third-parties, now wants to extend the insights provided by analyzing the data to companies that do not participate in its loyalty scheme.
The industry publication reported that in order to achieve this aim, LMG is planning to deploy SAS business intelligence software and in-house development that will provide a more detailed analysis of consumer trends.
IT Weekly cited Koos Berkhout, the company’s client insights director, as saying that LMG’s extended initiative could be in operation by the end of 2007.
We have data from 16 retailers and we want to use it to provide more analysis for participants, said Berkhout, cited by IT weekly. But we can also offer analysis services to companies not with Nectar using their own data.
IT Weekly has warned that the data regarding customer trends may not be as insightful if it stops being exclusive. There are also concerns that LMG’s plans will involve further exploitation of consumer information.
