Onboarding the next wave of users and brands to Aleph Zero with loyalty programs

Web2 brands can create more engaging, long-lasting customer relationships on Aleph Zero.

Aleph Zero as the fast and scalable blockchain infrastructure with privacy-enhancing features of zkOS can reshape customer loyalty programs. Enhancing the overall user experience and adding unique benefits around data ownership and custody, such programs are one of the frontiers that can onboard the next wave of web2 users to crypto.

Here’s how Aleph Zero is positioning itself to making users come to web3 through blockchain-powered loyalty programs and fan apps.

Web3 makes loyalty programs more attractive to users

Making the shift to web3 represents a huge opportunity for today’s leading web2 companies—especially when it comes to creating less restrictive loyalty programs that really resonate with customers and turn them into brand advocates.

For example, with Visa’s loyalty program, users can engage with gamified giveaways and treasure hunts.  While Budweiser developed NFT cans for collectors that would unlock VIP experiences and exclusive metaverse access.

Successful implementation of web3 principles can enable companies to create programs where rewards are interoperable—meaning rewards from one program can be smoothly exchanged with those from another. Plus, web3 and blockchain technology can deliver more transparency and trust in loyalty program rules and rewards, along with bringing regulatory compliance and a substantially heightened degree of personalization and security. 

However, when considering building your own unique program to inspire new customer advocates, it’s important to remember that not every blockchain is made equal—and not every web3-based loyalty program will be successful. So, how do you choose which chain is right for you and make a web3 loyalty app that gets results?

Reducing fraction with seamless user experience and privacy

It’s always good to start from a familiar place and offer participants a web2-like user experience to help bridge them into the web3 world. 

On Aleph Zero EVM, program creators can:

• create an account with as simple UX as providing a phone number
• don’t care about the gas fees as they are abstracted
• stay in full control over their data and assets

Account abstraction delivers a seamless UX. Users can log in through their mobile phone numbers and don’t need to purchase any cryptocurrency for gas fees to attain certain digital assets–while they still interact with a blockchain-based app. 

This is made possible through gas fee abstraction–you’ll interact with a dapp without even knowing it. As you get more accustomed to web3, you can export your account’s private keys, make purchases with crypto, and everything else you would do as a crypto native. In the end–it’s a self-custodial wallet with built-in features that engage brands’ audiences.

In addition to seamless integration, you also want to offer customer advocates all the benefits mentioned earlier on—interoperable rewards, heightened personalization, trust, and transparency. But what can really make you stand out is a commitment to user data and privacy when creating your web3 loyalty program.

When done right, web3 loyalty rewards (company tokens, unique NFTs, token-gated features, giveaways, shops, and many more) have true value. Giving users full control over their assets, personal details, transactions, and on-chain identity with minimized risk of data breaches will be in high demand–while privacy also makes the apps GDPR-compliant. 

These programs can also add more value within a blockchain network. As the number of transactions increases, especially with privacy-enhanced apps requiring more interactions, the usage of the underlying gas token rises. Brands and app creators can incorporate fees to boost their revenue. On a large scale, with multiple such programs running, this significantly raises the network’s usage.

Aleph Zero’s answer to the market’s challenges

Aleph Zero’s leading performance and unique UX and privacy capabilities make it the ideal web3 loyalty program conduit between you and your customers. The upcoming launch of our Aleph Zero EVM will enable smooth account abstraction. This is our EVM Layer 2 blockchain with built-in privacy features, which will open the Aleph Zero ecosystem—and your customers—to the second-largest blockchain network—and its dedicated user base. 

And when it comes to ensuring customer privacy, zkOS can enable users to transfer loyalty tokens without the risk of disclosing their data in the transactions–if they prefer it this way. For example, when transferring from the main wallet, outside observers would be able to see all assets and transactions. With zkOS, you’re in the driver’s seat.

On top of it all, with Aleph Zero being one of the fastest blockchain networks in the market–you can be sure that when you build an app for web2 audience, it will maintain web2-like performance. It’s really that fast.

Aleph Zero has the potential to become one of the networks that will play its part in attracting not only crypto natives but also those who are completely new to the space. The race to mainstream adoption is still on–and customer loyalty programs are one of the frontiers.

Tapping into the growing market and solving its challenges

It’s estimated that over 90% of businesses run some kind of loyalty program—and that the customer loyalty market is currently worth over $5.5B and is projected to grow to $24B by 2029.

However, today’s classic web2 loyalty programs are still failing to increase genuine customer engagement. One recent survey showed that up to 90% of consumers have a negative general view of loyalty programs and over 54% of loyalty memberships have fallen inactive.

Current web2 loyalty programs are not delivering genuine customer engagement and loyalty. This is largely due to the fact that rewards are issued within a closed system. They can’t be exchanged between different loyalty programs—and rewards can be restrictive in terms of geography and frequently expire before a user realizes it. 

Aleph Zero is here to change that.

Stay tuned for more news about the upcoming web3 loyalty program use cases built on Aleph Zero in the coming weeks!