The Strategy Behind Chipotle’s Loyalty Play
Photo Caption: Offering a loyalty program was a top request of Chipotle customers.
Skift Take
What makes customers spend money with Chipotle? The loyalty program will go a long way in helping the company to figure that out and influence future purchasing behavior.
Investing in a well-built digital loyalty program was not something that took a lot of convincing among Chipotle's leadership team. Executives had been hearing from customers for quite awhile that they wanted access to a loyalty program, it was just a matter of figuring out what that looked like for Chipotle.
After months of market testing, the company rolled out the program, dubbed Chipotle Rewards, nationwide this week. Users earn one point for every $10 spent, with free entrées handed out after every $125 spent. New users are given free chips and guacamole after their first purchase, and, to further boost the launch, Chipotle partnered with Venmo to drop $250,000 worth of free money into Venmo users' Chipotle Rewards accounts. Venmo also created a Chipotle emoji for the launch, making Chipotle the first restaurant brand to have one on its platform.
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