Internet Loyalty Cards

Where are they?

I often look for parallels in ecommerce with bricks-n-mortar stores and I've been wondering for a while, where are the internet loyalty cards? cards that would allow you to get benefits by spending at combinations of retailers?

Of course you have the credit cards, the amex's with their airmiles, but I'm more thinking about the likes of Nectar.

I'm pretty sure around the time of the first boom (2000) there were a few options being touted but since then, its never happened. Is this becuase they were never any use to businesses? I dont believe that. Is it because the technology is lacking? I'm not sure. I suppose one thing with a loyalty card is that it cant be replicated or shared as easily as it could on the net, but I expect this could be overcome with various cookies for the majority of customers.

I think the broader segmentation and multi-vendor offers could be of as much use to businesses online as offline, but I just dont think most companies are thinking that way as they dont see online users as "customers" but as "visitors that need to be converted".

Dont know really, maybe I'll come back to this thought later.