A method and system for offering a loyalty program deal to a target customer and for enabling use of points from a loyalty program as payment. In one preferred embodiment, the method may include the steps receiving from the loyalty program, information related to a loyalty program deal; storing the received loyalty program deal information on a server; notifying at least one target customer from the target customer segment of the loyalty program deal; receiving from a merchant, a points price request for a product selected for a purchase transaction; determining an initial points price for the selected product based on a cash-to-points pricing factor; determining an updated points price for the selected product based on the loyalty program deal; debiting a number of points from a loyalty program account of the target customer; and notifying the loyalty program that the loyalty program deal has been claimed by the customer.

Systems and methods are disclosed for enrolling customers in loyalty programs. In one embodiment, the method comprises receiving, at a loyalty program host, transaction information for a transaction initiated by a customer and determining whether the transaction information includes a customer loyalty number associated with a loyalty program. If the transaction information does not include the customer loyalty number, a loyalty enrollment process is initiated to automatically enroll the customer in the loyalty program.

A loyalty system that may be integrated with a financial infrastructure is provided. Such a financial infrastructure may accommodate transactions involving participants in the loyalty program as well as transactions that do not involve participants in the loyalty program. When a transaction is initiated by a customer at a merchant, regardless of who are the parties to the transaction, it is intercepted by a loyalty switch, which determines whether the customer and merchant are participants in the loyalty program. The switch transmits the transaction instruction to the financial infrastructure so that authorization may be received. If it is determined that the customer and merchant are participants in the loyalty program, the loyalty switch also executes a loyalty process that conforms with the criteria of the loyalty program.

Technologies are described herein for providing loyalty-based incentives to existing customers of a business participating in a loyalty-based incentive rewards program. In one aspect, a computer-implemented method for providing loyalty-based incentives is described. The incentive rewards system administering an incentive rewards program determines whether a customer of a business participating in the incentive rewards program is eligible for a loyalty-based incentive redeemable at the business. Upon determining that the customer is eligible for the loyalty-based incentive, a maximum redemption value of the loyalty-based incentive for which the customer is eligible is determined based on a previous transactional activity of the customer with the participating business. Consideration is received in exchange for providing the loyalty-based incentive to the customer and then the customer is provided with the loyalty-based incentive having a redemption value not exceeding the maximum redemption value.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide systems and methods for increasing participation in loyalty programs. In embodiments, the customer opts into a loyalty program. The customer is then provided with information about his or her loyalty participation and also is provided with information about one or more other customer's participation in the loyalty program. In another embodiment, one or more loyalty members can form their own competition or group within the loyalty program. The members can create loyalty sub¬ program rules for a competition and allow fellow loyalty members to participate in the competition. The customizable loyalty sub-program competitions further enhance member participation.

A method to configure a loyalty points reward program, where the method configures a loyalty program server comprising computer readable program code to configure a loyalty point merchant consortium and a loyalty point customer consortium comprising a plurality of participating consumers. The method further dynamically sets a universal loyalty point value, and determines a quantity of universal loyalty points to allocate to the first customer based upon prior purchases made by the first consumer from the plurality of participating merchants.

The present invention includes providing a universal loyalty program, such as, for example, a loyalty program that includes participation of multiple separately-owned large retail companies as well as users who are customers of each of the companies. Wide and large scale participation and data sharing, among companies or other entities as well as users, may be encouraged, incentivized, obtained and rewarded, such as through programs provided by the universal loyalty program. Such programs may include, among others, a food recall related program, a medicine recall related program, an anti-counterfeiting program, a credit card fraud prevention program, and an anti-identity theft program. Moreover, the universal loyalty program, as well as the other programs, may themselves benefit and be strengthened by the wide and large scale participation, including the resulting wide and large scale data sharing, collection, mining and uses afforded in part thereby.