A lapsed member is defined by absence against an expected pattern. The program sets a threshold, such as no purchase in a number of months relative to the member's normal frequency, and members who cross it are flagged as lapsed. They are not gone, since they remain enrolled and often hold a points balance, but they have drifted out of the active behavior the program depends on.
Consider a member who bought monthly for a year and then went silent for four months. Against their own history, that silence is a strong signal of lapse, more meaningful than applying a single fixed cutoff to everyone. A member who always bought twice a year has not lapsed at four months; the same gap means very different things for different members.
For an enterprise operator, identifying lapsed members precisely is the prerequisite for winning them back. Define lapse too loosely and the program wastes offers on members who were always infrequent; define it against each member's own pattern and it catches genuine disengagement early, while a targeted win-back still has a realistic chance of working.
