John Lewis names first head of loyalty as it rolls out more rewards schemes

John Lewis Partnership has partnered with customer loyalty and marketing experts dunnhumby and Eagle Eye to create more benefits for customers, and also appointed the department retailer’s first ever head of loyalty, Emily Wells. The news comes as the company signalled its intent to invest in data and loyalty earlier this year to give customers more of what they want and more value, which will be alongside the launch of a new pan-Partnership loyalty programme in 2024. The five-year agreement with dunnhumby and Eagle Eye will give customers “greater” personalisation and loyalty experiences. The move builds on the successful relaunches in the last year of My Waitrose and My John Lewis loyalty programmes, of which more than nine million customers are now members. In the past year, both programmes have rewarded customers with £100m in personalised money-off rewards. In addition, My John Lewis has grown to five million members who shop more frequently at a rate of 2.5 times more than non-members. The new partnerships will also open up collaboration opportunities with suppliers to support the growth of the JLP insights and media service. Wells will lead all of the loyalty programmes across the partnership from this June, holding responsibility for developing and launching a new pan-Partnership loyalty proposition in 2024, as well as leading and developing My Waitrose and My John Lewis loyalty programmes and teams. She has held a number of senior partnership and proposition roles over the last five years at Tesco, most recently as head of loyalty strategy. Prior to this, Wells held commercial and strategy roles across various retail and consulting settings. Wells said: "I'm delighted to be joining at such an exciting time for the business. With such a rich brand history and ambitious plans, I look forward to working with the team to deliver great things for our customers and the Partnership as we take the loyalty proposition across Waitrose and John Lewis to the next level." Dan Olley, CEO of dunnhumby, added: “We could not be more honoured to have the opportunity to work with John Lewis and Waitrose. These are two of the UK’s most iconic and well-loved brands. Over the years, they have defined what it means to give customers a great experience and great service, and have visibly cherished their deep customer relationships. “I am truly excited by the opportunity to help JLP continue this tradition, both in store and digitally, as they leverage our technology, data science and personalisation capabilities.”