Rakuten expands loyalty programme in UK

Rakuten is opening up its Super Points loyalty scheme in Europe, allowing customers to collect and use points towards purchases at third party retailers.

The programme is available in the UK and Spain and enables customers to earn points at over 200 of the UK’s top retailers including Waterstones, ASOS, TK Maxx and Zavvi, when shopping through Rakuten.co.uk or Desigual, Fnac and Rumbo and others through Rakuten.es. Up until now, points could be redeemed against various Rakuten services including content on Rakuten TV and Rakuten Kobo, as well as Viber Out calls with Rakuten Viber. As part of the programme’s expansion, Super Points can now also be redeemed for shop credit that can be used online and in-store at the likes of Tesco, Marks & Spencer, Currys, TK Maxx and Zavvi.

Rakuten Super Points was rolled out 15 years ago. Over one trillion yen worth of points have been issued, making it the most used loyalty point scheme in Japan. “Rakuten is a membership company and Rakuten Super Points are at its centre. Each Rakuten service owes a large part of its success to being part of the bigger Rakuten ecosystem and its over one billion members,” says Arjen van de Vall, President Europe at Rakuten. “In Europe, this ecosystem will also be our key to success, and by opening up our loyalty scheme to third party retailers, we are taking a major step towards that.”