Retailers can target customers with hot deals
The latest developments in mobile lend themselves to merging online marketing approaches with bricks and mortar retail giving marketers new opportunities to help ensure loyalty.
Podifi is a mobile marketing system that allows loyalty rewards deals to be distributed and redeemed through mobile. Retailers can issue offers directly to consumers’ smartphones allowing the businesses to reach consumers on devices that nearly half of UK residents carry around on a daily basis – their smartphones.
The system is a small pod, which can be linked to till-points via a USB connection or RS323 cable, on till systems up to 15 years old, reducing the cost barrier for entry for smaller, independent retailers or those larger retailers with older epos systems.
The system communicates with the smartphone through a Wi-Fi connection rather than through NFC chips, which aren’t installed in every smartphone on the market like Wi-Fi capabilities are, increasing the proportion of consumers that can use the system.
Retailers can then simply distribute deals and loyalty offers through their own branded app. Those who have downloaded the apps receive push notifications outlining the deal, bringing an offer directly to the customers’ attention. Customers can then redeem retailer rewards and incentives by tapping their smartphones on the pods at the point of sale.
To make the registration process easy, and increase the number of customers who use the system, customers can download the app using Facebook.
In addition to being able to target customers with deals, wherever they are, the system also enables retailers to track who has redeemed which offer in real time. This enables subsequent rewards and offers to be highly targeted at groups of customers depending on previous redemption habits.
By doing this retailers can ensure that customers are then receiving relevant offers that they’re likely to be interested in – creating better engagement with customers compared to traditional paper-based vouchers and deals.
Once a retailers app is loaded with offers and incentives, all the customer needs to do is browse and select the offers they are interested in, saving them to their wallet which they can subsequently redeem at Podifi pods. Over time, retailers can ascertain their interest and this then reflects the types of offers and deals that customers will then receive via push notification.
Deals and offers can then turn into intelligent loyalty rewards as smartphones allow apps to be synched with a user’s social media channels, which hold information on birthdays, anniversaries and upcoming events. For example, as a customer passes a chocolate shop, that same shop can send them a tailored offer a day ahead of their anniversary.
By harnessing this information and distributing deals to customers based on upcoming events, retailers directly engage with their customers’ lives, bringing loyalty campaigns in-line with the wider elements of marketing.
The system also allows for additional vouchers and offers to be distributed depending on a customer’s long-term loyalty, creating an incentive for customers to return to stores.
By issuing deals in this way, offers can significantly outperform paper-based loyalty rewards by reaching redemption rates of over 45 per cent compared to single-digit rates for traditional paper-based vouchers and coupons.
For retailers on the high street it also allows the same level of targeting and loyalty analysis as those who sell online and issue offers to registered customers on email. As customers now have the internet in their pockets and the phenomenon of “showrooming” becomes a growing concern, retailers need to seriously consider taking control of the channel which an increasing number of customers use as part of their purchasing decisions.
By using mobile, bricks and mortar retailers gain far greater insight into their customers to better engage with them and increase long-term loyalty. It’s no longer about what mobile can offer retailers, but rather what retailers could lose by not harnessing the technology.
For more information on Podifi, head to: www.podifi.com
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