SAP to launch loyalty management solution for retailers

SAP will release a new loyalty management solution aimed at CPG retailers and brands in the second half of 2025. It has also entered the agent space on behalf of retail, with an AI shopping assistant agent built to integrate with any e-commerce storefront, which will be generally available in the first half of 2025.

The news came at an NRF event in New York this week.

Key features of loyalty management. The possibilities of the new solution include:

• Profiles that connect customers to a cloud-based loyalty wallet support personalized targeting and real-time shopping cart analytics.
• Loyalty management across multiple brands and loyalty programs shared with partners (by region and market).
• Multi-channel promotion planning with real-time redemption to deliver offers, digital payments and gifting to all customers across all channels.
• Planning a fidelity journey.
• Metrics that track promotion performance, linked to financial systems to measure return on investment.

The solution will be integrated with SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Retail, SAP Commerce Cloud, SAP Service Cloud and SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement.

Why we care. As one would expect from SAP, this solution has benefits that will interest the big players in the retail space – loyalty management across brands and regions, for example. We care because it’s a reminder that loyalty is a part of the customer experience that is sometimes overlooked. Seamless engagement from discovery to conversion is excellent; but CX doesn’t stop there.

Why does SAP care? Emarsys, which was acquired by SAP in 2020, reported this week that four out of five (83%) US consumers feel undervalued by the brands they remain loyal to. SAP describes it as a “wake-up call for brands”.

ERP for retail. The other big announcement at NRF was the general availability of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Retail, Public Edition. This is a public cloud-based ERP solution specifically for retailers. Merchants have historically relied on customizing generic ERP solutions, SAP said in a statement. Cloud for Retail is focused on managing the complexity of retail sales, supply chain integration and store operations.

Dig deeper: SAP Emarsys launches AI Product Finder