Category: Retail Technology

Let’s not get left behind this time

Yes we heard you, because we feel you too. Since the Coronovirus pandemic began, online sales have increased by leaps and bound, numbers where we retailer business owners can only dream off. Even e-commerce giant like Amazon plans to hire an additional 100,000 employees in the U.S. and increase workers’ pay in the U.S., U.K. and Europe to respond to surging online orders. Hence we have compiled a list of e-commerce platforms which we retailers can list our product and services on. Oh yes, did we mention that each of these platforms are giving our special promotions during this pandemic. No reason to be left out this time, it’s time to join the bandwagon.

OURSHOP by AirAsia

OURSHOP allows traders to sell a wide range of products, from groceries, daily essentials, food and beverage to beauty products as well as household items.

The campaign will enable merchants to sign up at zero commission and zero listing fee to market their products on OURSHOP, for the whole month of April 2020.

Link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdfuI3PSaU_J4MS6cMFytbZy2GQegFMpJdIHhALHKS8ehEXQA/viewform

Promotion: Zero commission and zero listing fees

OCTOROCKET

Join us at OctoRocket to expand your market reach across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam.

OctoRocket aims to help businesses to facilitate cross border transactions with lower risks and costs. Look no further and join us today as a Seller.

Link: https://octorocket.asia/

Promotion: All registered Malaysian F&B sellers are eligible to enjoy the following offers until 31 Dec 2020:

• Waive off monthly subscriptions
• Free seller onboarding   & E-shop
• Unlimited products listing
• Free customer support & seller onboarding training
•  Free marketing outreach via Octorocket media network
• Only 5% of transaction fees inclusive of credit card fees

SHOPLINE

We believe SHOPLINE’s platform can help entrepreneurs to achieve their entrepreneurial dreams. It is a powerful tool to help SMEs meet the challenges of pivoting their businesses and sell online.

We hope to create an ecosystem with rich resources where entrepreneurs will have the opportunity to be their own boss, help one another, develop their own franchise and be able to sell globally through their online shop.

Link: https://consultation.shopline.my/

Promotion: Free website and digital marketing services for first 3 months

EVERPEAKS

Everpeaks is a fast growing multi-channel eCommerce solutions provider. Our agency consists of a team of passionate individuals who have come from different backgrounds in eCommerce.

Our vision is to help brands showcase their products to the global marketplace. Through technology, marketing and the use of global marketplaces, we hope to bring consumers closer to the brands we work with, wherever they are in the world.

Link: https://www.everpeaks.com/products/export-ecommerce-account-registration-and-set-up-for-amazon-and-ebay

Promotion: Usual price : MYR3,350. Offer with coupon : RM1,065. Promocode : COVID19 for 70% off our standard rate

SITEGIANT

SiteGiant is Malaysia’s leading eCommerce enabler and was established back in 2013 to provide a range of eCommerce services, catered to both small and large enterprises in Malaysia. SiteGiant’s eCommerce solution allows merchants to sell on multiple channels such as online marketplaces, Facebook and their own branded online store.

Link: https://www.sitegiant.my

Promotion: 40% off e-commerce package until 30th April 2020

iSTOREiSEND

iStore iSend is a full-fledged fulfilment solution provider with state of the art warehouse management system to automate your ecommerce operations. Founded in 2009, we are pioneers of providing a seamless omni-channel experience, allowing sellers to increase their market entry and expand regionally with ease. Whether you need warehousing, pick and pack services, delivery, or order tracking features, we are here to do the heavy lifting for you.

Link: www.istoreisend.com

Promotion: Free 1 month storage (Up to 10cbm)

• Pay per Use
• FREE 1st 200 units of stock inbound (only redeemable via 1st month inbound total)
• FREE 1st month Warehouse Storage (max 10 CBM limit)
• FREE Integration with All existing e-marketplaces / selling platforms *that we are already integrated
• FREE ODIN access to monitor operation while #StayAtHome
• FREE ODIN training online
• **only eligible for 1st sign-up new client

20% off for fulfillment on Hand Sanitizer, face Mask, anti-bacterial Hand wash product during Movement Control Order.

KUMOTEN

Kumoten is Malaysia largest dropshipping platform. We help Malaysian sell on Lazada and Shopee without buying or keeping stock ( dropshipping ). This is a low risk, easy and fast way to start earning from selling in major marketplace like Lazada and Shopee. User only pay the wholesale price to Kumoten when there’s order in Lazada/Shopee. Kumoten will pack and deliver the item directly to buyer.

Link: https://kumoten.com/start-here

Promotion: Free sign-up fee. No Annual Fees. No Commission Charge

VETTONS

A mobile shopping app with original brands, smarter features and better experiences.

Link: https://www.vettons.com/#/

Promotion: VETTONS50 Promo campaign to help shoppers buy daily essentials using a RM50 voucher during the MCO period. RM1 Shipping Fees campaign to make purchases cheaper and easier for shoppers during the MCO period.

INSTANTSTORE

InstanteStore has plenty of shopping cart features that help you make more money online more quickly. InstanteStore comes with all the features that you need right off the bat. Almost every feature is available to you, no matter which package you choose.

Link: https://instantestore.com

Promotion: FREE for 3 months (worth RM1200)

LAMBOPLACE 

Malaysian-homegrown online marketplace that sells only genuine and authentic products. Our promise is to always bring you the best valued products, our direct suppliers can offer. LamboPlace recently launched our LamboFresh which helps local producers and distributors to promote fresh & frozen foods. LamboPlace recently launched our LamboFresh which helps local producers and distributors to promote fresh & frozen foods.

Link: https://bit.ly/2JEQn71

Promotion: Buy over RM50 & quote LamboFresh at checkout for a surprise discount.

Just a pleasant experience may not be sufficient to convert your existing customers to regulars, even if your food is scrumptious accompanied with warm services.  Who wouldn’t like to draw more customers returning to your truck over and over again, here are few solid ways you can incorporate loyalty programs into your business.

1.The “Buy X, Get 1 Free” Loyalty Card

You may be very familiar with this type of loyalty card and it still exist for a reason. It works! Let it be a free burger or a pack of nasi lemak kosong, who doesn’t like being rewarded and recognized for being loyal? For contributing to multiple purchases.

The benefits are that it’s a physical reminder of your food truck. Doesn’t it feel great to see your customers flipping out your paper stamp card. They too will be reminded of the last meal they had from your food truck after seeing your card in their wallet.

Every stamp grows their anticipation. This is actually backed up by facts. Customers do get excited collecting stamps and witnessing the stamp filling up to the final spot.

This system does have its limitations. Limitation where business owners are not generous with that final reward. This makes your customers feel unappreciated. Hence, make sure you attach a heartfelt thank you to ensure that your customers doesn’t just feel like they are your financial gain but in fact in a steady relationship as well.

Another weakness of paper stamp card is obviously because it’s not digital. You as a business owner have to forcefully keep track of how many rewards you have given out, but worse of all you are missing out on powerful data that can bring your marketing strategy to the next level. Imagine using this data on your Instagram and Facebook followers.

2.Digitizing Stamp Card Loyalty Programs 

Digital stamp card are significantly the better choice for food trucks operators. Rewards are now tracked through the mobile apps which acts like a personal identification card just for loyalty recognitions. This enables customer to claim their stamp’s every visit without having to keep up with a physical card.

This could be your next step in digitizing your business after setting up your Facebook and Instagram page. These digital stamp card doesn’t just empower your business but is extremely easy to use. The data you may collect from these digital dashboard with your stamp cards can be very impressive. Not only can you track precisely how many reward perks you’re giving out but you can now also decisively know how recent, frequent and how much they have spent at your food truck.

These customer data acquired is invaluable to even the smallest vendors. It enables you to develop a laser targeted data driven marketing campaign to loop in existing customers with campaigns such as marketing promotions, loyalty programs and menu to maximize customer satisfaction and sales.

3.Advanced Privileged Cards (Points Collection System)

The variety of loyalty programs you can get from digital platforms are in abundance. One which has gained popularity over the past few years in the points based loyalty programs. This system allows customers to earn and collect points based on how much they spent. With the collected points, they can then use it to redeem coupons predetermined by you as food truck business operator.

This approach gives your customers the flexibility. If they’re not a fan of nasi lemak, maybe they can instead redeem points on an order of mee goreng or nasi goreng.

Having a plethora of loyalty rewards isn’t the only benefit, but infusing personalized engagements is another key aspect a business owner should consider. If this interests you, you may look into following the below rules:

• Adopting a simple yet effective reward structure
• Offer an easily to achieve low hanging reward to demonstrate the system to customers
• Clarity is key, communicate point transparently and clearly to customers

Here’s another loyalty program best suited for food trucks as the setup is quick and simple especially with the right tool.

4.Tiered Privileged Cards 

If you think that the quality of food that you serve from your food truck is comparable to those in cafes and restaurants, but your customers still tends to visit them more often, then consider using a Tiered Privilege card. This system allows customers to continually get rewarded with benefits of higher value in exchange for repeat spending. The higher tier they are, the better the recognition they achieve, making them feel special and appreciated.

Here’s and example on how you business can exploit this system:

• SILVER TIER (Spend up to RM100) : Free lemonade every visit
• GOLD TIER (Spend up to RM500) : 15% OFF with min. spending of RM30
• PLATINUM TIER (Spend up to RM1000) : 30% OFF with min. spending of RM30

This type of loyalty program is highly effective when you expect the interval between your customer return to be a lengthy one. If it requires your customers to be highly committed to purchasing from you hence making it less often you are able to reward the, the more long-term you have to plan for your customer retention strategy.

5.Experiential Approach 

It is often said that if a retailer can induce customer loyalty through non monetary gains, loyalty of such lasts much longer. As a food truck business owner, you can try implementing this approach by perhaps donating a burger for every 5 burger purchased by a customer. You could even allow your customers to convert their points to purchase coupons for charity donations. Although this approach doesn’t provide your business any monetary gains, it sure does generate incredible brand loyalty, perhaps even making you the talk of the town.

Managing a loyalty program is all about continuous inputting effort towards it. Setting it up once and expecting your customer to start coming back instantly will not happen. Loyalty programs need continuous improvement and pivoting until you find the best angle for your specific customer needs.

If  running a food truck business is already too overwhelming for you, you can try adopting Engage, a customer retention tool powered by artificial intelligence to help you better reward your customers with laser targeted accuracy.

With Engage, creating loyalty campaigns would not take you more than 10 minutes and if it doesn’t work for you, you can terminate it in an instance. Engage is specifically catered for Food truck businesses hence its ease of use and intuitive features.

The existence of a loyalty program is primarily to increase a customer’s interest to keep returning time after time. Easy said than done, but how can retailers create value in their loyalty programs to captivate the attention of their customers to participate? Your loyalty programs should be designed based on your customer’s behaviour whether in-store or in their own home, and the designed strategies to keep them coming back.

1. Laser Targeting Segmentation. There is no point investing in attraction a customer segment who does not favour loyalty programs. For an example, if you are using a digital loyalty program, the millennials might be all for it, but on the other hand the baby boomers might find it too complicating and would only use plastic loyalty card as a vehicle for loyalty reward redemption. Therefore in the initial stage, its vital to focus on group of customers whom are most influential on your business.
2. Customized Individual Experiences for Customers. Basics. Always, always prioritize what the customers want not what the retailers need. A well crafted loyalty program should always give what the customers want, consistently and accurately. Recognizing and rewarding customers basing on their shopping habits does not only inculcate and increase your brand awareness but also explicitly expressing to your customers that you value them as loyal customers. Loyalty programs now days need to look beyond just monetary rewards but into deepening personalization on relationship, captivating engagement to customers to be wanting to return to your shop to be recognized and rewarded.
3. Consistency is Data Analytics. Loyalty programs must be based on data collected to be

STRATEGIES FOR SUCCESS: DATA IS AT THE HEART OF ANY WINNING LOYALTY PROGRAM

The ultimate goal of any loyalty program is to provide a compelling value proposition that keeps consumers coming back time after time. How can retailers create valuable, differentiated loyalty programs? Strategies should be driven by a deep understanding of your consumers’ shopping decision process, and then programs can designed to bring them back again and again.

Measure and monitor performance. Loyalty programs can be used to drive better business decisions, as well as to refine program offers. But to do both, loyalty program data must be tools for retailer learning. Research costs prevent many retailers from fully assessing whether their programs meet the objective of increasing consumer share of wallet, but the importance of data cannot be overstated and will only continue to grow. The future lies in integration—combining granular, internal loyalty data with rich contextual media and market data to make more insightful decisions.

Use segmentation tools. Understand which consumer groups loyalty programs really matter to and why. The execution of any loyalty program should allow for personalization and dynamic learning, but the initial design should be geared toward serving the consumers whose behavior will be most influenced, and a segmentation analysis will help identify those consumers.

Personalize the shopping experience. Winning loyalty programs understand that every customer is an individual and that success comes from giving customers what they want, not what the retailer wants. Program offers that are unique to the shopping habits of each consumer can not only drive brand affinity, but they can also send a signal to the customer that they are valued patrons. In fact, personalization deepens the shopper-retailer relationship, enhancing engagement and encouraging shoppers to return again and again to redeem their offers.

Provide offers customers value. Retailers need to use the breadth of data available through their loyalty programs and predictive analytics to identify the promotions to which a shopper is most likely to respond and to establish a one-to-one communications channel, providing shoppers offers they care most about in the channel they most prefer. While bigger families may be enticed by buy-one-get-one-free deals or stock-up offerings, older customers may prefer special savings days when store traffic is lighter.

Differentiate your offering. How is your loyalty program different than your competitors’? Give shoppers a compelling reason to visit your store rather than another. Consider exclusive rewards and in-store experiences that are unique to your location or brand positioning and make it engaging and fun to participate for all generations of consumers.

Leverage technology wisely. Advancements in technology and the proliferation of mobile devices allow retailers to provide more relevant, timely offers than ever before, and many consumers are enthusiastic about integrating their digital devices with loyalty programs. But a “build it and they will come” approach to digital integration isn’t that simple. Retailers must leverage digital tools that create value for consumers, and digital interactions must be aligned with how much or how little consumers want to be contacted. Consider an opt-in program, whereby consumers indicate the level of frequency they wish to receive digital Communications.

Consider non-monetary rewards. Financial incentives are a must-have, but non-monetary incentives are the differentiator of loyalty programs, and can build the relationship between retailers and shoppers. Retailers looking for ways to engage in more direct interactions with consumers could try rewarding members for referrals or interacting with the brand on social media. Even better, retailers could use their loyalty programs for brand building, incentivizing activities that fit with their brand image or expertise. For example, brands that want to establish or cement a reputation as a leader in the health-and-wellness space could reward consumers for meeting exercise or health goals, while those that want to solidify themselves as socially responsible could consider rewarding consumers for volunteering, making charitable donations or choosing more environmentally friendly options. Above all, programs should be aligned with the more important priorities and values of consumers.

Beacon Devices: An Overview

Beacons are tine, a Bluetooth-powered wireless objects that allow mobile apps and websites to scan when someone is within the range of a location. There are deployed in store, usually on the ceiling where they can be configured to broadcast relevant, localised information to portable devices within their set parameters. Common use case where retailers will use beacons to engage when a customer is within the vicinity, so they can send them personalized notifications with relevant information, like an upcoming promotions, coupons or discount. This type of location-based marketing technique is known as PROXIMITY MARKETING.

Beacons are being tied to trusted devices and their users, to be agreed and tracked when they’re within the range. For example, the customer were to walk around a mall walking past a restaurant with beacons deployed, the beacon would shoot out packets of data, which is picked up by a mobile app, triggering a specific action or an automatic notification. Beacons don’t send notification themselves. What they really perform is send a packet of coordinate information, a unique identifier(uri), to the mobile applications within their range (1-50 metres).

Every beacon has it owns unique identifier, where it can contains up to three type of data. First, information about the beacon vendor, second information about a certain location, such as the shop location; lastly an information about a specific ub spaces within a shop, such as the entrance of the store.

These tiny devices can emit BLE signals for up to 5 years and very affordable to obtain.

Beacons & Proximity: The uses of beacon technology in Proximity Marketing

According to ABI Research Report,The Location of Things (LOT) reveals that total BLE beacon shipments will exceed 400 million units in 2020. This tremendous number will bring means to new marketing opportunities easily accessible and very promising. Retailers are definitely more welcoming and keep to adopt these devices in their marketing strategy mix to retain and engage their customers through personalized information. Here’s an overview of some of the opportunities for retailers.

Data Gathering

Retailers can find the high-traffic locations in their shopthrough heatmap, and then optimize the shop and merchandise layouts and enhance their product placement based on navigational patterns. Data will also provide them which customers visit the store most often, or to those who regularly spend on a particular products. This means that beacons have the ability to track user behaviours and collect relevant data about users preference and actions. Retailers can leverage on this information to re-target their customer with much more relevant promotions or campaigns.

Beacons with Geo-Locations

Retailers could enable prospect or existing customer to drive foot traffic to their store. For example, a couple is having a walk around a park and a restaurant nearby could send a location-based notifications to users within the range of a specific beacons and encourage them to enter the store to have a free glass of wine on the house.

These strategies are very powerful tactics to drive traffic to retail stores and no doubt increasing their conversion rate and revenue. The uses of beacons can increased engagement through a direct line of communications with customers.

To find out more about how targeted beacons marketing can help you, contact us at [email protected].

The holiday season is round the corner and you are deliberating if its the right time to launch a loyalty program to boost your sales. Should you just wait for the next holiday season or should you launch it now in preparation for the next occasion?

In this blog post, we’ll discuss on the most important topic on whether a loyalty program is suitable for your business. Loyalty programs aren’t for all business especially if your customer base isn’t big enough. But a loyalty program is most suitable for you if your business is strategized to achieve the below intentions.

1. FOSTERING CUSTOMER LOYALTY TO ACHIEVE HIGHER SALES GROWTH

There has been studies proving that in comparison to new customer, loyal customers spends 10x more and they are 5x more likely to purchase (RJMetrics).

Times have changed where acquiring new customers is no longer the best solution to boost your business. Stats have shown that it will cost retailers 7x more than retaining a loyal customer.

1. STAND OUT FROM YOUR COMPETITORS BY PROVIDING EXPERIENTIAL EXPERIENCE

Times different now, people are no longer believing that retail is dead, but it’s actually the means to an end. Customers are looking for special care, acknowledgement and recognition, in short customers are seeking guidance from retailers.

 

A well tailored loyalty program can work wonders for a business, acting as the missing piece to achieve success, providing the extra charm and attentiveness towards customers. Basing on a study form Nielsen: 72% of customers would buy from a retailer with a loyalty program over one without. Ever wondered why? A retailer with a loyalty program always have something sweeter prepared for their customer, something more personalized and valuable.

1. HOW MUCH MORE CAN YOU DO TO STAND OUT TO BE A LEADER IN CONSUMER LOYALTY

Nielsen studies has forecasted that by 2021, the demand for loyalty program will increase by 300% especially in the retail sector, and this was a studies conducted in 2016. Even though basing on a 2016 stats, but unfortunately the facts is that most of these loyalty programs are based off the old school methods – the same old plastic card! To make things worse, customers are forced to fill up excessively lengthy membership forms.

But the simple fact is that customers are looking for loyalty programs which are flexible and convenient to use for both online and offline strategies. This in return will define the success of a loyalty program. For those of us who has been to Starbucks will definitely agree that they are a real role-model in the loyalty program trend.

On a slightly different note, Nielsen’s study has indicated that 67% of retail customers prefers if a loyalty program is combined with a mobile payment platform. A total of 62% of them appreciated if they could collect point for being active in social activities related to the retail brand.

Now, on to one of the main reason for this article. How do you know when is the right time for you to launch your loyalty program? Before even thinking of subscribing to a loyalty program, below are some of the possible goals your business need to achieve, and what can influence the exact launch date of your loyalty program.

1. PLANNING IT AROUND A SPECIAL EVENT OR OCCASION

There is no one in this world who doesn’t like to be delighted or even surprised, imagine implementing this with a loyalty program. Exploit special occasions, launch your campaigns around an occasion to leverage on the anticipations. Launch them for occasions such is:

• Store Anniversary
• Hari Raya
• Deepavali
• Chinese New Year
• New Years
• Christmas
• Black Friday
• Alibaba’s Singles Day @ 11.11
• Back to School Campaigns
• And more…

But keeping all the hype aside, you should never forget the your business need to be prepared and ready for two primary hurdles.

• Ensure that the loyalty program of your choice is seamlessly and also technically integrated with all your current operational systems
• Prepare a complete marketing strategy to promote your newly adopted loyalty program

1. COMBINING TECHNOLOGIES

According to a report from eMarketer, 65% of shoppers expects personalized offers and promotions from retailers. This is one the the main reason to why retail brands adopt loyalty programs into their existing retail technologies as loyalty programs helps them enhance customer personalization. Moving towards the up and coming retail technology, loyalty programs are starting to see integration with proximity marketing such as Apples iBeacon and Goodles Eddystone Bluetooth Light Energy (BLE) technology. With this technology the above mentioned stats can easily be mitigated.

As a conclusion, deciding on the right time to adopt a loyalty program has two sides. First, is to ensure that your business direction and vision is consistent even after the implementation of a loyalty program. As a retail brand, you must always question the objective of implementing a loyalty program, and do you aim for objectives that modern, gamified loyalty programs achieves? For example:

• Customer retention is more important than customer acquisition
• Competition through experience-based differentiation and not through a price war against your competitions
• Implementing new technologies to enhance in-store automated personalization, and hassle free retail experience

Once you are able to achieve all the objectives, you are then ready to launch your very own loyalty program. But please do not forget that a successful program launch also requires the following:

• Flawless integration with current in-store retail technologies
• A well planned marketing strategy to promote your loyalty programs to your customers

It’s almost end of the world when a pop-up telling you to connect your phone to a power source, or even worse the “fairly” reminder that you have only 20% battery left.

We’ve all been there, and right after cursing and ranting, we’re prompted to salvage what’s left of our almost-flat battery. Which app can I close? Reducing my phone brightness? Switching off data plan?

You may even heard that turning off your phone bluetooth is a surewin way to conserve the last bit of that battery juice. Or, that you should just switch off altogether in the first place. Guilty as charged, but as it turns out that bluetooth has been wrongly accused of one serious crime: being a serial battery killer.

So here we are today to prove the myth wrong, we did our research and here is 2 good reasons why leaving your Bluetooth on all day will not kill your battery.

1. BLUETOOTH “LOW-ENERGY” MEANS JUST THAT

In our everyday lives, technology has been pretty much shifting from one point to another, even Bluetooth has evolved as our mobile devices have. Our smart phone, tablets, laptops, and wearables natively support latest version of Bluetooth, commonly referred to as Bluetooth 4.0 / Bluetooth SMART®  / Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).  They basically means that this technology allows us to wireless sync with our phone/tablet/laptop for convenience purpose (Example: keyboard, mouse, thermostat).

It was developed to send small bits of data at a time between2 devices (Example: your iPhone & Fitbit) while using a more energy-efficient approach. Thus, BLE isn’t is not gonna kill your precious battery.

(2) THE ADVANTAGES VS DISADVANTAGES

The advantages yielded from Classic Bluetooth span from enabling driver’s phone going hands-free to practice safe driving and enjoying wireless experience with speakers. Now with the advent of BLE, in how it provides your mobile a new way to communicate with other devices, like retailers’ beacons, smart watches, etc.

These advantages can provide value to consumer include never missing a promotion at the supermarket, tracking daily steps and miles, or remotely changing the song playing via your handy dandy smartwatch.

Thus, leaving Bluetooth on or discoverable mode does not typically qualify as a “Serial battery killer” all on its own. Everyday life can be much easier by having our bluetooth turned on so it can detect & communicate with other BLE-enabled devices.(Example: beacons) uses little to no juice at all.

What is it that retail customers are looking for now in a retail outlet? User experience is what they are looking for. People are calling it experiential retailing where owners are pushing to develop tangible products or even services which customers can touch and feel. Retail outlets are expected to take customers on a journey surpassing the old school ways of just purchasing but a total customer immersion within the retail outlet.

Building a well executed brick and mortar store will undoubtedly face unpredictability like connectivity, geographical coordinates, weather and general human error. It’s difficult, really difficult to build and develop a store which people intentionally want to hang out. This is of cause unlike online shopping, everything is controlled through your keyboard and clicks from your mouse which in comparison is much easier controlled and documented than the above mentioned unpredictability face in the real world stores.

It’s obvious that technology is required in solution to providing a much more immersive in-store experience. This merging practice of the physical and digital world requires a new angle of technology application.

It’s no more whispers that the people in the industry are preparing for the fall in retail industry. But they could never be this wrong., E-commerce may be growing at a rapid phase of 15% annually but brick and mortar would still hog up 70% of retail sales transacted 5 years from now. This directly represents an estimate of 0.85 cents of every retail dollar spent.

Marketers are now equipping themselves with skills designed to combine retail brands in-store experiences with their online channels into one omni-channel experience. Their primary goal is to provide in-store shoppers a much higher lifetime value in comparison to those whom simply shops online. To ensure the success of an effective marketing strategy for the revolutionary of in-store retail experience, retail marketers must uphold these four ideologies, arranged in steps for easy guidance.

Step 1: Customer is King

Having to consistently engage the right customer with the right sales pitch of your product is definitely an uphill task. Uphill it maybe, but it’s not impossible. Everything begins with a step, and this first step would be the one your customer takes when entering your retail store. This type of identification is generally referred as ‘progressive profiling’. Retail marketers which consistently and diligently studies their customers journey in-store, streamlining prompts engagement with special moment usually build a much more lasting brand impression.

To be successful in this field, one has to thread the thin line of customer self-discovery and retailer supervision. But if done right, brand loyalty can successfully be achieved..

Step 2: A Technology which All Retail Employees Must Understand

No matter how effective the technology maybe in increasing in-store experience, if a retail employee fails to understand, implementation failure is imminent. Whatever the technology adopted, it must be flexible enough for all in-house staffs working in-store to use and introduce, but at the same time smart enough for owners to extract analytical insights of which customer is more loyal for example.

The key difference between a successful system is the potential in providing retailers with actionable data in real-time. This real-time analytics provides employees the information and timing to better execute their job in bring active guides in every customer’s shopping experience.

Step 3: Tier 1 Retail Marketing, Bringing your Customers In-store

Irregardless of how magical your in-store experience is, with no customers walking through your front door, it’s as useless as can be. Thanks to the advancement of technology, the way customers find products is most likely to change drastically. Search engines are now encouraging people to question in specifics, with the ability to return direct answers for searches like “maternity outfits near me” or “best cafe near me”. This is where retail brands can build their online to offline presence, firstly by making themselves visible online.

Step 4: Tier 2 Retail Marketing, Understanding your Customers In-store  

Its not unusual for a retail brand to understand their customers behaviour online rather than in their brick and mortar retail outlets, where customers are right under their nose. Once a customer walks in-store, they practically are on stealth-mode.

So what other strategy could there be? The answer’s simple, the good old ‘Passion’. Create a hit on the passions of your customers, and you’re on to way to a potentially successful in-store strategy. Connecting to your customers basing on their passion whether through branded contents or events, when people engage with brands in these moments, they are explicitly stating that they are all so excited and passionate about the engagements.

Types of ‘Passion’ events which big brands have been using for years are such as HomeDepot’s workshops, Samsung’s Virtual Reality Events, REI Outdoors Events, Nike Run Club and Sephora’s Beauty Workshop. Now with the availability of at the forefront of the offline experience, retail owners can now strategically select guest lists and develop in-store engagement which captivates customers who are most likely to purchase.

It’s about time retail tech players start a massive disruption movement on this 20 trillion USD industry. All it needs is the right solution to come along to capture their stake of the market. EngageBlink has taking the spearheading role in South East Asia to provide solutions to the retail brand space enabling them to re-captivate in-store experience of their customers. How? by providing a Plug-and-Play marketing tool aimed to strengthen customer engagements by re-captivating in-store experience with real-time user information.

Purchasing a loyalty program is different from buying any other asset for your business as it can completely change the business dynamics. You should treat it as in investment instead on just another purchase. Having a rewards program is absolutely essential for restaurants especially as they have frequently returning customers. Prior to digital solutions, most restaurants focused on producing printed stamp cards which would result in high cost over time, and often time customers would lost it as well. Digitalized mobile punch cards are more personalized, and restaurants even have the ability to push out notification that are more interactive between restaurant and customer.

Let us have a look at the five reasons why your restaurant needs a loyalty program:

1) Simple & Easy

We’ve come a long way since the traditional punch cards are so yesterday. Today, restaurants can set any loyalty campaigns or rewards as they want via a web-based solutions. They can set and reward specific customers for specific purchase behavior.  Once the program is up, all you need to do is sit down and wait for the business to come to you. Restaurant can avoid complicated paperwork, entering information about each and every customer so they will be free up to perform more meaningful and effective task.

2) You Have Nothing To lose

There’s no way that your rewards program could fail after careful planning and execution. Furthermore, if you want to avoid losing money after implementing a rewards program, allow your customers to spend a certain amount of money or time before they can earn any points that can be applied to their account. Example, create a reward program that offers customer free menu item after a number of visits or purchases.

3) Encourage Repeat Diners

What is 80/20 rules? It simply means that 20% of your returning customer contribute at least 80% of sales to your business. Being pampered and rewarded for repeat business will significantly sits high on all customer’s mind. You can expect by providing incentives or deals for loyalty will encourage customer to be back at your doorstep again. According to Author Fred Reichheld, on The Loyalty Effect “…a 5% increase in customer retention can lead to a 25-100% increase in profit for your company.”  Just merely a small increase of retention can have strong results.

4) Attract New Diners

According to the 2014 Bond Brand Loyalty Report,  when customers received relevant communications,  their overall satisfaction with loyalty programs will increase 5x higher. When it comes to message dissemination, loyalty programs can be tailored to focus on specific geographic location and on people demographic. That more personalized information will help turn a one-time customers to a repeat customers.  Especially also if the whole rewards experience are interactive, customers are more likely to spread the words to others.

 

Lastly,

5) Sales Is King

Mobilizing rewards program allow restaurant to remind customers about their great menu and specials.   Often, customers will need to see the name of a restaurant around the time before deciding what to do for dinner, and they will be inspired to dine there. By sending push notifications on promotions, discounts, and special discounts going on that day or week will allow you to tap into their decisive mind. It may sound a little devious, but if you are looking for an increase in sales, simply alerting customers about what is going on that day could be the difference between obtaining that sale or losing it to the burger joint next door.

A restaurant rewards program along with a pleasant atmosphere, awesome food, and splendid service is a value added benefit to your restaurant’s marketing strategy.

Retailers are directly disrupted by the presence of e-commerce stores, leaving them in a stagnant growth position. More effective e-commerce technologies are sprouting throughout the world catering to millennials who are ever so ready to execute an online purchase. This has resulted in brick and mortar retailer to start cutting marketing cost as a first step but they could never be more wrong.

Customer loyalty programs are time and proven method for retailers to grow and sustain customers and even potential growth in market share. It must be known that customers whom are already committed and loyal to a brand will compulsively continue buying and are a prime market for that brand’s newly launched products.

Although loyalty programs aren’t new anymore, but retail brand owners still fail to recognize the importance on the implementation of such programs into their business. Besides that, owners are not fully aware of the options available out there. Only tinkering with old programs which were effective a decade ago (e.g. Paper stamp card collection). Worse still owners have no effective way of measuring their efforts from the implementations. Observing from a different angle, customer now have higher expectations over how customer loyalty is seen and interpreted by retailer brands.

INCREASING CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

The current marketplace no longer hold true to the old patterns of customer behavior, where retail brands must accept and adjust to survive. Loyalty programs will always be needed in the retail industry but they must be easily accessible to anyone of all walks of life. It must also be up to the trend of today’s digital customers. One of the most important measurement of an owner implementing a program is its cost. Loyalty programs don’t come cheap, in some cases, investments in loyalty programs can reach up to 10% of sales. To ensure that retail brand owners do not burn cash on inappropriate programs, let us discuss on some steps on requirements of a customer loyalty program which suits your wallet and business best.

Step 1 – Engagement Customers Experience
Customer experience is now the number one achievement target for all retail brands. An effective program will automatically multiply the growth of good customer experience. Hence, for any brand owners who are interested in trying out a program, the ability of them to measure the effectiveness of customer’s experience would be a good first measurement.

Step 2 – Requirements of Mobile Data
Another primary indication of an effective loyalty program would be it usage of customers mobile data. Gamification of loyalty programs are on the up trend these days, but do remember they do take up a lot of your customers mobile data. That would be a different case if your retail outlet provides free wifi connections.

Step 3 – Customized Engagement Contents
Consistency may be the key in a good loyalty program but creativity and novelty are something which customers will be looking forward to. With the right program, brand owners are able to test and personalize engagement contents in real time, introducing novel contents and also benefit to captivate customers. While at the same time providing detailed measurement of customers analysis identifying contents which are not effective or profitable while filtering out the uninteresting ones.

Surveys have shown that majority of loyalty customer groups expressed that they will do almost anything to earn more reward points in at least one program. Therefore it’s of utmost importance that as a retail brand owner, you understand the requirements and touch points which captivates your customers is key as saving them the most money is not always the case these days. Customers are now looking for personalized engagement and services as it is the in-store experience which they are most looking forward too.

Further studies have also proven that more than 70% of brand loyal customers appreciates  in-store informational contents to surprise deals or rewards, special privileges and time saving opportunities. Loyalty programs which allows brand owners to personalize engagement contents offering frequent surprises will most likely reap the most benefit in sales. This all means that while shopping for a loyalty program, brand owners should look into a program’s flexibility and speed in customizing contents to captivate the ever evolving customers preferences and expectations.

We surely do hope this helps anyone who finds this article useful in your endeavor in brand retailing.

All the best from us from Team Blink