September 22, 2026
This marks an exciting new era of loyalty rewards for Australian consumers. Telstra, the largest telecommunications provider in the country, just launched its brand new card-linked offers program. Members can now earn Telstra Plus points on everyday spending with participating brands.
The Shop & Earn program, powered by Loyalty Now’s technology and partnership network, is offered to six million Telstra members at launch.
It works like this: Telstra members can now earn points when they shop with any participating retailer by paying just as they usually would, using any eligible linked card. Points earned can be redeemed for items from the Telstra Shop, like technology products, home appliances or entertainment, or be put towards payments on their Telstra Account.
At the time of the program’s launch, members can earn points when they shop for a wide range of products at over twenty different brands, including names like Ugg Express, SABA, and KitchenAid.
The launch of Shop & Earn marks a significant expansion of card-linked rewards in Australia, providing Telstra members with a new way to earn points on everyday spending.
Loyalty programs have differing goals. For some, the purpose of loyalty is to maximise the value of each transaction. For others, the value of transactions is secondary to customer retention, so repeat purchasing behaviour is the key measure of success. Others still rate advocacy as their key goal. These different performance indicators share an underlying prerequisite: member engagement.
In 2026, running a CLO program is easier than ever. Loyalty technology partners — like the team at Loyalty Now — have streamlined the technology integration and enablement processes that make CLO programs work. With partners like Loyalty Now to do the heavy lifting, more businesses can now reap the benefits of a powerful card-linked offers program.
Card linked offers are automated rewards that consumers receive when they make eligible transactions with their payment card. Also called payment-linked rewards, these offers are deployed as part of a customer engagement or loyalty program.
.svg)