The impact of gender and age on customer loyalty : A quantitative study of Swedish customers’ experiences of a loyalty program

Abstract: Title The impact of gender and age on customer loyalty – a quantitative study of Swedish customers’ experiences of a loyalty program Authors Sara Follin & Viktoria Fransson Background Building customer relationships could be done by using loyalty programs; programs which involves activities for enhancing customer loyalty (Ou, Shih, Chen & Wang, 2011). To use loyalty programs as relationship marketing tactics has become popular and it is frequently used in the grocery retailing industry (Noble & Phillips, 2004). Customer loyalty differences might be influenced by customers’ gender and age (Kuruvilla, Joshi & Shah, 2009; Patterson, 2007). It is expected that females tend to be more loyal than males, and that older customers tend to be more loyal than younger generations (Patterson, 2007; Ndubisi, 2007). Purpose The purpose of this study is to describe the impact of gender and age on customer loyalty in the grocery retailing industry. Theory & Concepts Relationship marketing, Loyalty program, Customer loyalty, Gender differences in customer loyalty, Age differences in customer loyalty Methodology This is a descriptive study with a quantitative and deductive research approach. The research strategy was survey, and data was collected from 216 respondents through a questionnaire. Data was collected around the loyalty program Willys+, which formed the sample of this study. Conclusion Customers’ gender could be one variable influencing and impacting customer loyalty, however age is not. Gender impacting customer loyalty, could be explained by potential differences in how females and males choose to shop in store as well as by the fact that the majority of the members in the loyalty program were females. Loyalty among customers belonging to different age group did not have any significant differences.