Marks & Spencer expects to access useable marketing data from its &more credit card and loyalty scheme as early as March.
It has already been offered to 2.6 million M&S charge card customers, and the retailer hopes it will become the UK's biggest card.
Divisional director for strategic marketing Nick Penny said: 'We've now launched the card and we have got between now and Christmas to monitor its use. For us to analyse that data and make sense of it will take 8 or 9 weeks.'
This will include use of the card at M&S stores, as well as initial data about when and how much customers spend at other retailers' outlets using &more.
The card is being promoted with an advertising spend understood to be£20 million. 'We are trying to get existing customers to spend more and go up the spend ladder. What you want is for everybody to go up one rung of the ladder,' said Penny.
He was cagey about figures, but explained that the principle aim is to encourage people to see the card as their preferred method of payment, rather than simply as an M&S loyalty card.
Shoppers collect one point for every pound spent on the card at M&S, and receive onepoint for every£2 elsewhere.
Customers can also 'double dip' by buying goods at other retailers with the M&S card and using that store's loyalty card.
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