SAP has shared plans to release a new loyalty management solution in the second half of 2025.
The solution targets retailers and consumer packaged goods companies.
In doing so, it aims to equip customer experience teams with the tools to create new customer loyalty programs that include personalized, real-time offers.
While SAP hasn’t yet confirmed a name for the solution, it has teased several features.
These include “Loyalty Profiles” that connect shoppers with a cloud-based “loyalty wallet”.
From the wallet, customers may track rewards, redeem personalized offers, and view entitlements, while the business can run analytics, like real-time basket analysis.
Then, there’s an option for organizations to centralize loyalty programs across regions and markets. They may also enable shared programs with partners.
Additionally, the solution will allow for omnichannel promotion planning, so brands can send offers, share gifts, and accept digital payments “on any channel”.
Meanwhile, SAP will embed quantifiable metrics to monitor the performance of loyalty programs, promotions, and initiatives.
Supplementing this are integrations to financial systems to help track ROI and enable settlements.
Finally, the solution connects to other SAP systems, sharing data across the CX ecosystem. Indeed, it integrates with SAP Emarsys Customer Engagement, Commerce Cloud, Service Cloud, and the new S/4HANA Cloud for Retail, Public Edition (more on this later).
Wait… Doesn’t SAP Already Have a Loyalty Management Solution?
Some onlookers may note that SAP already has a loyalty solution that’s part of Emarsys.
That offering – Emarsys Loyalty – offers similar features, allowing businesses to assign rewards and special statuses to customers based on their interactions, engagement levels, and spending habits.
Yet, by drawing from Emarsys and honing loyalty management to the retail sector, SAP can differentiate through industry-specific innovation.
Expect that to be a big topic throughout 2025, as tech giants – like SAP – preconfigure customizable blueprints, flows, AI models, and AI Agents for specific sectors.
Moreover, by spinning loyalty management out of Emarsys, SAP may attract a new customer that doesn’t want all the bells and whistles of a complete customer engagement platform.
Another possible motivation is to address the troubling state of customer relationships, with SAP citing new Emarsys research, which highlights how many companies are grappling with loyalty.
Indeed, the study suggests that 83 percent of US consumers feel undervalued by the businesses they stick with, leaving many questioning their loyalty.
As such, there are several reasons behind the prospective release, which dovetailed two other significant SAP product announcements ahead of NRF 2025.
The AI Shopping Assistant & New ERP
Alongside the loyalty management solution, SAP teased a shopping assistant AI agent, touting its release for the first half of 2025.
Delivered as part of the SAP CX AI Toolkit, the autonomous assistant will prompt shoppers with questions that lead them to the best-placed product.
SAP also promises that the AI Agent will integrate into any eCommerce storefront, pinpointing its API-first design.
Such innovations follow SAP’s introduction of collaborative AI Agents in October.
Elsewhere, the enterprise tech giant announced the general availability of SAP S/4HANA Cloud for Retail, Public Edition.
The industry-specific ERP platform will support retailers in replacing highly customized, fractured on-premise solutions with a more tailored, unified cloud option.
SAP notes that the option provides “comprehensive” capabilities and embedded sector-specific data models that “eliminate the need for costly customizations.”
These models will parse finance, merchandizing, operational, and procurement data, which help lay the foundation for the ERP.
