Wednesday, August 26, 2026

 

Do customer loyalty programs actually work? The benefits are in the eye of the cardholder



New research led by Edith Cowan University (ECU) has analysed survey data from more than 800 Australian supermarket retail customers to better understand what influences customer engagement with loyalty programs.




Edith Cowan University






Whether you love a loyalty discount at the supermarket or frequently forget your loyalty card, loyalty programs (LPs) can be an essential support to families and households amid growing cost-of-living pressures. 

The number of LPs offered by retailers is increasing. Globally, the loyalty management market is projected to grow in value from $17.38 billion USD in 2026, to $51.65 billion USD by 2034. The market will continue to expand as cost-of-living pressures force households to seek discounts, coupons, gifts and vouchers to reduce their shopping expenditure. 

New research led by Edith Cowan University (ECU) has analysed survey data from more than 800 Australian supermarket retail customers to better understand what influences customer engagement with LPs, and how effectively the programs impact loyalty to retailers. 

The findings will help retailers design LPs based on what is most important to customers. 

ECU Professor of Marketing and Service Science, Sanjit Roy from the School of Business and Law, said research found that customer behaviour and retailer loyalty are driven by customers’ characteristics and capacity to engage with LPs. 

“Many customers don’t have the time to do mental cost-benefit analysis. What am I getting and what am I giving up? Retailers know this, so they’ll prompt you at the till before you pay, either at self-serve checkout or by a customer serviceperson asking: do you want to scan your rewards card? Do you want to scan your Flybuys card? Retailers know how to reinforce our habit,” Professor Roy explained. 

“But as customers we are losing more than we are gaining. If we earn one point for every dollar spent, and every 2,000 points we receive a $10 voucher – is it worth handing over our personal data when discounts and promotions aren’t being personalised or tailored to our buying habits as a reward for our loyalty? Therefore, is it worth signing up for the loyalty programs?”  

The results show that LP engagement leads to retailer engagement and customer loyalty – both in attitude and behaviour toward a customer’s retailer of choice. 

Dr Saalem Sadeque, Course Coordinator and Lecturer in Marketing at ECU, said a customer’s capability to wait and use LPs played a major part. 

“If a customer predicts there will be a future discount on an item they frequently purchase, they may wait a week or two to buy it and buy more of the same product. But if they don’t have the capacity to wait – like a parent desperately needing nappies or with too tight a budget to buy in bulk – they will miss out on the discount despite their loyalty to the retailer,” Dr Sadeque said. 

In the age of digital marketing algorithms and discount codes, engaging customers through LPs can create both challenges and opportunities for supermarket retailers.  

Implications for retailers 

Despite their existence and increased reliance on LPs from major supermarkets like Coles and Woolworths, customers often do not engage with them. The success or failure of LPs depends largely on a combination of customers’ trust in, commitment to and perceived benefits from these programs. 

“Our research shows that engaging with loyalty programs from the customers perspective depends on several factors: trust in the retailers, commitment toward and from the retailers, perceived benefits, as well as the ability to wait for discounts (temporal price search strategy), and ability to look for deals across multiple retailers (spatial price search strategy). Our findings demonstrate that no one factor leads to engagement but rather a combination of all these factors,” Professor Roy said. 

The absence of these conditions significantly hinders engagement with LPs and retailers. 

“A lack of loyalty program engagement also creates uncertainty in cash flow projections which is an additional downside for retailers.” 

In a recent report, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) advised Australian supermarkets to be more transparent about their pricing. 

Recipe for success 

“Transparency is important to customers. Retailers should strive to be transparent about their prices and business practices, provide exceptional customer service, and send out consistent brand image messages. If you make a commitment to providing fresh fruit and vegetables – ensure you deliver on that promise,” Professor Roy said. 

Professor Roy said Australian supermarkets should better use the data generated from individual customers to personalise the benefits offered and build connection. 

“Customers know they’re just a datapoint. Supermarket retailers should focus on advancing their LP offering by establishing a personalised dialogue with customers and making their loyalty benefits more human-centric. Creating a personalised dialogue is a precursor to building trust.” 

Given that LP engagement is crucial for fostering deeper customer engagement, retailers should design LPs that deliver clear, consistent value and build an emotional connection. 

“A tailored, integrated strategy that aligns a loyalty program’s value with trust and relationship building is essential for sustaining customer loyalty and long-term retailer relationships,” Dr Sadeque said. 

“Retailers can enhance customer commitment by conducting market research to ensure that their values align with their customers. In addition, retailers may cultivate customer commitment by creating personalised offerings to improve the perceived benefits, increasing the likelihood of customer engagement with LPs.” 

The journal article Customers’ Disposition Towards Loyalty Program Engagement is published in the European Journal of Marketing. 

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Media contact: 

Hayley Butler, (08) 6304 5575, h.butler@ecu.edu.au  

or ECU Corporate Relations, (08) 6304 2222, pr@ecu.edu.au 

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Climate strategies of large European cities: Urban green could help but is rarely used on the strategic planning level





Martin-Luther-Universität Halle-Wittenberg






Green spaces could play a key role in helping cities to cope with the effects of climate change, yet they still play only a minor role in climate strategies. These were the findings of researchers at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU) and Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) who analysed the climate strategies of 25 major European cities. Of the approximately 2,500 individual measures evaluated by the team, only 11.6 per cent included green spaces and urban open spaces. Cities mainly focus on measures to reduce or prevent greenhouse gas emissions. The study was published in the journal “Progress in Disaster Science”.

Storms, heavy rain and heatwaves: Due to their dense development, large populations and extensive areas of sealed surfaces, cities are particularly hard hit by the effects of climate change. Urban green spaces could help to alleviate these effects by absorbing rainwater and lowering temperatures. “Although the positive effects of urban green spaces have been thoroughly studied and are well known, this knowledge is not consistently reflected in the climate strategy documents of many large European cities,” says senior lecturer PD Dr Marcin Spyra from the Institute of Geosciences and Geography at MLU.

The researchers analysed the planning reports of 25 European capitals and other large cities. The team categorised the individual measures described in the plans according to the type, their objective and the use of green spaces and other urban open spaces. “A key positive is that climate action is a strategic priority in almost all urban development plans, with a wide range of climate measures,” says Spyra. The analysis also revealed a predominance of measures aimed at reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions, so called climate mitigation, in most plans. “The proportion of measures aimed at protecting against the already noticeable consequences of climate change is increasing. Green spaces feature much more prominently in adaptation strategies than in plans focused solely on mitigation. However, they remain underrepresented overall,” says Dr Victoria Dietze from the JLU.

The scientists identified significant differences between the cities they analysed. Vienna integrated green spaces and urban open spaces more than any of the other cities in the study, boasting 30 such measures. Stockholm, on the other hand, was the only city without a single such measure, according to the analysis. Instead, the Swedish capital relies heavily on measures that reduce emissions. According to the team the higher number of reduction measures in the climate plans can, in part, be attributed to the EU’s climate targets, which are primarily aimed at reducing harmful greenhouse gas emissions.

The researchers say that previously paved surfaces, such as car parks, could play a significant role in tackling climate change if they are redesigned. “The decision on how to use urban open spaces in cities is anything but trivial: we need housing, schools and transport, but we also need biodiversity and functioning ecosystems,” says Sina Hammermeister, who conducted the study as part of her Master’s thesis at MLU.

The study analysed the cities’ strategy reports rather than the actual implementation of the plans. “However, what cities plan is key to what actions they will take. Without a strategy, there is generally no implementation,” Spyra concludes.

Study: Hammermeister, S., Dietze, V. & Spyra, M.: Climate change strategies in selected large European cities: Specific activities and the role of urban open spaces. Progress in Disaster Science (2026). doi: 10.1016/j.pdisas.2026.10059

 

Global breast cancer lifetime risk stands at 1 in 18, with stark disparities between rich and poor nations





China Anti-Cancer Association
Data were obtained from GLOBOCAN 2022 (185 countries), United Nations population and all-cause mortality data from WHO, and longitudinal data on breast cancer incidence between 2003 and 2017 from CI5 Plus database. 

image: 

Data were obtained from GLOBOCAN 2022 (185 countries), United Nations population and all-cause mortality data from WHO, and longitudinal data on breast cancer incidence between 2003 and 2017 from CI5 Plus database. The AMP method was used to calculate lifetime risk, which accounts for multiple primary cancers, competing risks from other causes of death, and life expectancy. Analyses estimated lifetime risk across different global regions, countries, age groups, socioeconomic conditions, and menopausal status. The findings showed that the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer was 5.51% and dying from breast cancer was 1.82%. Epidemiologic disparities of breast cancer were noted in different HDI regions and healthcare resource countries globally with pronounced heterogeneity. Countries should implement precise prevention and control measures based on their respective health resources and risk profiles to reduce the global burden of breast cancer. Figure created using Microsoft Office PowerPoint and Adobe Illustrator. (AAPC, average annual percentage change; AMP method, adjusted for multiple primaries method; CI5, cancer incidence in five continents; HDI, Human Development Index).

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Credit: Cancer Biology & Medicine






A comprehensive new study has quantified for the first time the lifetime risk of developing and dying from breast cancer across 185 countries, revealing that 1 in 18 individuals worldwide will be diagnosed with the disease during their lifetime and 1 in 55 will die from it. The research, which used an advanced method that accounts for multiple primary cancers, competing causes of death, and varying life expectancies, found that lifetime risk ranges from less than 1% in some low-income countries to over 16% in wealthier nations. These stark disparities underscore how a woman’s risk of breast cancer is profoundly shaped by where she lives and the resources available to her.

Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer and the leading cause of cancer death among women globally, accounting for nearly 2.3 million new cases and 670,000 deaths in 2022 alone. While traditional metrics like annual incidence rates provide a snapshot of disease burden, they do not capture the cumulative probability that an individual will face breast cancer over their entire lifetime. Moreover, the interplay of reproductive patterns, lifestyle factors, screening access, and treatment quality varies enormously across regions with different levels of economic development. Based on these challenges, there is a clear need for a more intuitive, comparable indicator that accounts for life expectancy and competing mortality risks to guide global cancer control strategies.

Now, researchers from institutions including the National Cancer Center of China, the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, the Fourth Hospital of Hebei Medical University, and Beijing University of Chinese Medicine have published (DOI: 10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0059) the most comprehensive assessment of breast cancer lifetime risk to date. The study, appearing in Cancer Biology & Medicine, analyzed data from GLOBOCAN 2022, United Nations population statistics, and global health expenditure databases. The team used the adjusted for multiple primaries (AMP) method to calculate lifetime risks across 20 geographic regions, 185 countries, and different age and menopausal status groups.

The global lifetime risk of developing breast cancer from birth to death was 5.51% (95% CI: 5.50%–5.52%), meaning approximately 1 in 18 individuals will receive a diagnosis. The risk of dying from the disease was 1.82% (95% CI: 1.82%–1.83%), or about 1 in 55 individuals. However, these averages mask dramatic variation: in very high Human Development Index (HDI) regions, the lifetime risk of developing breast cancer reached 10.37% — more than 3.5 times the 2.91% risk observed in low HDI regions. Australia and New Zealand had the highest regional risk at 14.98%, while Middle Africa had the lowest at 2.16%. At the country level, Luxembourg topped the list at 16.62%, while Bhutan, Sierra Leone, and Angola had lifetime risks below 1%.

The study also found that the lifetime risk of dying from breast cancer was highest in very high HDI regions (2.70%), followed by low HDI regions (1.70%) — a pattern reflecting both higher incidence in wealthy countries and poorer survival outcomes in resource-limited settings. Temporal trend analysis across 36 countries with long-term surveillance data showed significant increases in lifetime risk in 32 countries between 2003 and 2017, with the steepest rises in the Republic of Korea [average annual percentage change (AAPC) of 5.84%] and Japan (5.21%).

"These findings show that breast cancer is not a single global disease but a collection of different epidemics shaped by economic development, health system capacity, and demographic structure," the authors said. "In high-income countries, the challenge is managing a high lifetime risk driven by lifestyle and reproductive factors, while in low-income regions, the priority must be improving early detection and treatment access to reduce the unacceptably high proportion of deaths among younger women. The 3.5-fold gap in diagnosis risk and the reversal of mortality patterns across HDI levels tell us that one-size-fits-all approaches will fail — each country needs a strategy tailored to its own risk profile and resources."

The lifetime risk estimates provide an intuitive tool for health communication and policy planning. For very high HDI countries, the findings support refining screening strategies for postmenopausal women, who account for nearly 72% of the lifetime risk in these regions. For low and middle HDI countries, where premenopausal and perimenopausal women contribute disproportionately to the breast cancer burden, the study suggests initiating screening at younger ages — around 40 or 45 — and strengthening diagnostic and treatment capacity. With breast cancer incidence rising in most countries, these data offer an evidence-based foundation for allocating limited health resources to where they can have the greatest impact on reducing global breast cancer inequities.

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References

DOI

10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0059

Original Source URL

https://doi.org/10.20892/j.issn.2095-3941.2026.0059

Funding information

This work was supported by Capital’s Funds for Health Improvement and Research (CFH2024-2G-40214), the CAMS Innovation Fund for Medical Sciences (2021-I2M-1-011), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (82274608).

About Cancer Biology & Medicine

Cancer Biology & Medicine (CBM) is a peer-reviewed open-access journal sponsored by China Anti-cancer Association (CACA) and Tianjin Medical University Cancer Institute & Hospital. The journal monthly provides innovative and significant information on biological basis of cancer, cancer microenvironment, translational cancer research, and all aspects of clinical cancer research. The journal also publishes significant perspectives on indigenous cancer types in China. The journal is indexed in SCOPUS, MEDLINE and SCI (IF 12.4), with all full texts freely visible to clinicians and researchers all over the world.

Making life more colorful on the wings of a butterfly



Researchers take inspiration from nature to find longer lasting, safer colors for cosmetics, food coatings, and paints



American Chemical Society

Making life more colorful on the wings of a butterfly 

image: 

Inspired by butterflies and damselflies, Clara Dou and colleagues create colorants that mimic nature to potentially overcome toxicity concerns associated with the metal oxides used in products such as cosmetic glitter.

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Credit: Northeastern University






CHICAGO, Aug. 26, 2026 — The next time you need to freshen up the paint on your house or apply a bit of cosmetic glitter before heading out for the night, you might want to give a quick nod to the butterflies fluttering in a nearby garden. Taking inspiration from structures on those wings that make their vibrant colors, researchers are now devising more durable and adjustable colors that are also safer for human health and the environment.

The researchers will present their results at the fall meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS) during the “Carbon-based Nanomaterials: From Fundamental Insights to Applications” symposium in McCormick Place. ACS Fall 2026 is being held August 23-27.

“Because structural color arises from the physical architecture of the material rather than light absorption by a biomolecule, it does not fade over time.” — Leila Deravi

In nature, the chemical structure of some molecules causes them to absorb specific wavelengths of light, reflecting the rest, and it is the reflected light that we perceive as pigmentary color. This is what makes carrots orange (carotenoids), blood red (hemoglobin), and plants green (chlorophyll).

As pigmentary colors are exposed to sunlight and other environmental elements, however, the chemical compounds can break down and the colors fade, requiring a refresh. Additionally, many commercial dye and pigment formulas contain toxic chemicals — or may themselves be toxic.

Nature also produces what are known as structural colors resulting from the physical arrangement (e.g., crystal structures) of molecules. These microscopic formations bend, scatter, and interfere with specific wavelengths of light, so that we only see the reflected wavelengths. Structural colors are what cause the rainbow of opal gemstones, the blues and greens of peacock feathers, and the deep blue of morpho butterfly wings.

“Structural color materials offer two key advantages over most traditional, pigment-based products: durability and vibrancy,” says Leila Deravi, the principal investigator of this study. “Because structural color arises from the physical architecture of the material rather than light absorption by a biomolecule, it does not fade over time.”

Trying to understand how chemical composition and crystal structure influence color generation, Deravi, Associate Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, and her colleagues at Northeastern University studied butterflies in the Pieridae family, such as the Cabbage White and Clouded Sulfur varieties commonly found in open meadows. The researchers will present their findings on pterins, compounds that are related to those that make up DNA and found on the surface of butterfly wings.

Deravi suggests color intensity could be adjusted by controlling the size and packing of the pterin crystals rather than requiring many different pigments. There might also be safety advantages because these natural biomolecules are already being produced and used by animals and plants.

“They’re safe for the environment,” Deravi continues. “They’re safe for people, and they don’t have a lot of downstream toxicity like some of the forever chemicals used in synthetic pigmentary dyes.”

The researchers are quick to note, however, that they have not yet initiated studies to validate pterin safety.

Critical to studying structural colors from pterins, however, is the need to produce and modify pterin crystals in the lab, the focus of Clara Dou, a graduate student in Deravi’s lab and presenter of their work at the meeting. To do this, she synthesized pterin granules that mimic the structures on butterfly wings.

As Dou explains, forming the microscopic crystals out of pterins has historically required organic solvents such as dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), chemicals that can present safety concerns for human health and the environment. And crystallization using DMSO takes several weeks to complete.

“If the animals can do this without DMSO, how can we replicate this natural process in the lab?” Dou asks.

“Our work addresses this by exploring how water, salt, and acidity influence crystallization,” she continues. Using the new method, Dou can get crystals to precipitate out of solution and isolate them in a matter of minutes. The researchers can then see how changing crystal growth conditions change the reflected color.

The team’s new process reduces the need for organic solvents, making it more environmentally friendly than the currently used methods.

Although the current work produces only milligram-size (like grains of table salt) amounts of structural colors, the researchers are currently scaling up production as they believe it has commercial potential. They say these pterin structural colors could be a natural and sustainable source that overcomes some of the toxicity concerns associated with, for example, the metal oxides used in products such as cosmetic glitter.

“If we can make some templates for glitter using essentially derivatives of DNA, that would be incredible,” Deravi says.

“Ultimately, there’s still a great deal left to learn about biological color,” she continues. “It’s something we all interact with daily in the flowers, insects, and animals around us, yet the underlying mechanisms behind their long-lived, fade-resistant color are still being defined.”

The research was funded in part by Northeastern University.

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The American Chemical Society (ACS) is one of the world's largest scientific organizations and a global leader in advancing scientific knowledge. Founded in 1876, ACS' mission is to advance scientific knowledge, empower a global community, and champion scientific integrity. Guided by its vision of a world built on science, ACS brings together people, ideas, and resources to drive discovery and innovation, support the professional growth of scientists and students, and advance scientific discussion. Through its trusted publications, scientific meetings, community networks, education and career resources, and scientific information solutions, ACS helps scientists, educators, and students make a lasting impact on their communities and the world at large. Together, these efforts support ACS' commitment to improve all lives through the transforming power of chemistry.

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Title
Exploring the structure and optical function of pterin-based materials

Abstract 
In nature, some animals have evolved complex optical systems that rely on layers of ordered organic crystals that maximally reflect or scatter light. One such subclass of materials includes oxidized pteridine derivatives known as pterins. Pterins are widely found in pierid butterfly wings and the thorax of blue-tailed damselflies as both structural and pigmentary color components In this work, we explore three pterin derivatives (pterine, ixosanthopterin, pterine-6’-carboxylic acid), which differ systematically in their functional group chemistry, to better understand the relationship between their molecular structures and their ability to precipitate as highly reflective nanomaterials. By characterizing the intermolecular forces, we aim to establish clear structure-property relationships linking molecular architecture to bulk optical performance.

 

How plants evolved a molecular switch to cope with heat



Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie




Ghent, 26 August – As climate change drives more frequent and intense heat waves, plants face growing challenges to survive and remain productive. Researchers at VIB, Ghent University, KU Leuven, and their international collaborators have now uncovered an evolutionary innovation that helps plants cope with high temperatures. Published in Nature Plants, the study uncovers a molecular mechanism that helps plants stay cool under heat stress and could help researchers identify new ways to strengthen crop resilience.

In short:

  • Researchers led by Prof. Ive De Smet (VIB-UGent) discovered a molecular mechanism that helps plants stay cool during heat stress by keeping their natural cooling system active.

  • The study, published in Nature Plants, identifies the protein UBP24 as a key regulator that helps leaf pores (stomata) remain open, allowing plants to cool themselves through evaporation.

  • The mechanism appears to be an evolutionary innovation that emerged alongside actively controlled stomata, helping plants better adapt to rising temperatures.

  • The findings provide new insights into plant heat resilience and could support future efforts to develop crops better equipped for climate change and more frequent heat waves.

Keeping cool when temperatures rise

Unlike animals, plants cannot move to a cooler location when temperatures soar. Instead, they rely on built-in mechanisms to avoid overheating.

One of the most important cooling mechanisms involves tiny pores on the leaf surface called stomata. When temperatures increase, these pores can open, allowing water to evaporate and cool the leaf, much like how sweating cools the human body. Scientists have long known that stomata help plants cope with heat, but many of the underlying molecular processes remained poorly understood.

Led by Prof. Ive De Smet (VIB-UGent Center for Plant Systems Biology), the researchers – including the teams of Prof. Kevin Verstrepen (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Microbiology) and Prof. Kris Gevaert (VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology) - discovered a previously unknown pathway that helps stomata open during heat stress. Central to this mechanism is a protein called UBP24. High temperatures trigger a modification that stabilizes UBP24. This change stabilizes other proteins that keep stomata open and maintain the plant’s natural cooling system.

Towards more resilient crops

Understanding how plants respond to heat is becoming increasingly important as temperatures continue to rise worldwide. The newly discovered mechanism helps explain how plants keep their leaves cool under hot conditions. While the research is fundamental in nature, it provides new insight into the biological processes that support heat resilience in plants and could eventually inform efforts to develop more climate-resilient crops.

“As heat waves become more frequent and intense, understanding how plants naturally cope with high temperatures is more important than ever,” says Prof. Ive De Smet. “By uncovering one of the mechanisms plants use to regulate their cooling system, we gain new insights into the biological processes that help plants remain resilient under heat stress.”

An evolutionary innovation

By comparing UBP24 across dozens of plant species, the researchers discovered that a molecular switch enabling the protein to respond to heat appeared in vascular plants around the same time that actively controlled stomatal opening and closing evolved. This seemingly small change gave plants a new way to fine-tune their response to heat.

Surprisingly, the story extends beyond plants. The team found that a related protein in yeast relies on a similar principle to function under heat stress, despite hundreds of millions of years of evolutionary distance between the two organisms.

“Finding similar solutions in organisms as different as plants and yeast was particularly exciting,” says first author Shao-Li Yang (VIB-UGent). “It suggests that this is a remarkably ancient and effective way for cells to deal with heat.”

As climate change increases the frequency and intensity of heat waves, understanding how plants naturally cope with high temperatures is becoming ever more important. By uncovering a molecular switch that helps plants regulate their cooling system, the researchers reveal one of the ways plants have adapted to life in a changing environment. These insights not only deepen our understanding of plant evolution but may also guide future efforts to develop crops that are better prepared for a warming world.