If you are anything like me, customer loyalty programs can heavily influence your purchasing habits. I may not even be planning to shop until I realize I have reward points to burn, or special members-only savings, and suddenly my virtual shopping cart is full (while my wallet is a little lighter).

Joining me to share some very intriguing insight into how these kinds of programs work and what the actual benefit is to the businesses that utilize them is Arun Gopalakrishnan with Rice University. His study, “Can Non-tiered Customer Loyalty Programs Be Profitable,” was recently published in the INFORMS journal Marketing Science.