Its not very often that new ideas come along that offer convenience retailers an innovative and scalable solution to surprise and delight their customers, so we were incredibly excited when our friends in The Reitan Group realised the extra-ordinary potential of our “coupon shop” to create a whole new product in a market that has been totally under-served until now – the corporate market.
As the operations director for many loyalty programmes in my career, including telecommunications, energy and banking, I was regularly tasked with rewarding our customers in a safe, secure and “surprising” way, and I had a significant rewards budget approved and ready to spend. My brief was clear – I wanted to gift an “everyday reward” such as coffee or chocolate, to my selected customers in an easy and safe way. Disappointingly, at the time, convenience retailers in Ireland rarely had a solution in place, and there were few who had the understanding, awareness and secure technology in place to sell their products to me in bulk to reward my customers.
That seems finally about to change, with Pressbyrån, the leading convenience and kiosk retailer in Sweden, launching their digital coupon store that enables bulk purchase of digital vouchers for coffee, a nice lunch sandwich or even an ice-cream. We know Sweden is consistently acknowledged as one of the worlds most innovative countries, so this solution will undoubtedly delight both companies and customers in equal measure.
Pressbyråns offers gift coupons in bulk for coffee, lunch, ice-cream, snacks and magazines
Why It Works:
Before a retailer invests time and attention in a new product idea, there must be a clear and compelling use case. The “corporate coupon” concept makes perfect sense for so many reasons, including:
- There is a need from companies who want to reward either staff or customers with affordable products they can buy in bulk. Everyday rewards, otherwise known to loyalty managers as “micro rewards” do exactly this.
- As convenience stores offer an extensive range of products that appeal to anyone and at affordable price points, bulk buyers can choose whether to gift a lunch, coffee or sweet treat.
- Corporate clients save on any shipping or fulfilment costs as customers pick up their reward in store. This saves huge amounts of time, cost and complexity for HR Managers and Loyalty Programme Managers!
- Digital coupons are redeemable in retail stores by the coupon holder personally, they can only be claimed once and cannot be redeemed for cash, ensuring total safety, security and peace of mind for corporate buyers.
- Convenience retailers that offer digital coupons enjoy a unique selling point – an exciting way to differentiate themselves from competitors.
- Customers who are gifted a digital coupon have a great experience collecting it in store.
- Finally, digital coupons create an opportunity for increased footfall from new users with “free marketing” through new channels. Whether the customer receives the voucher from their employer, or as a member of a loyalty programme, they will enjoy the easy and effortless joy of shopping in a Pressbyrån store with a digital coupon paid for by someone else.
The Digital Coupon Store is just one part of Pressbyrån’s Digital Transformation
How It Works:
Simplicity is critical when a big new idea is brought to market. Our online coupon shop can be set up by simply adding our iframe to your existing website. Then your B2B customers simply follow the online purchase process seamlessly.
Your corporate customers are likely to be companies such as banks or insurance companies, utilities such as telecoms, TV & broadband, newspaper & media, car dealers & service, travel and transportation – all companies that are delighted with a simple and affordable way to reward their customers and while they may need to be initially contacted to be “sold” the concept, in our experience they come back time after time then for their future gifting needs.
The Customer Journey
- Your client chooses which products they want to order and how many coupons they need.
- They click to the check-out page once they are happy with their order.
- They choose if they want physical delivery of printed coupons OR if they want digital coupons to send by email or SMS.
- After completing their purchase, the customer is sent an email confirming the order details and the receipt.
- The coupons are sent immediately to the client to distribute as rewards/gifts.
- The person who receives the coupon then comes to your store and scans their code at the point of sale and picks up the free reward – such as a delicious free ice cream.
Truly a WOW customer experience!!
Clients know that their customers will be delighted when they collect their gift in store
Compelling, Creative and Commercial
The project was led by Farhan Akkurt, Digital Technical Lead for the Reitan Group in Sweden so we wondered what convinced him to focus his team on digital coupons for corporate customers? Quite simply, he realised how well this idea matched with the company’s ambition to “spread joy, constantly develop and dare to think new to meet the needs of tomorrow’s customers.” He told us “It’s exciting to find an idea that we can be the first to bring to our customers, something that is both compelling and creative and also creates new commercial opportunities”.
The whole team at Liquid Barcodes is excited to be supporting Pressbyrån with this compelling and industry-leading initiative and we wish them every success with their digital coupon shop going forward.
For more information on the Liquid Barcodes digital coupon shop to drive your B2B business, click here.
About Us:
Liquid Barcodes is a leading global loyalty and digital marketing technology company specialising in the convenience store and foodservice industries. Our proprietary cloud-based technology platform allow retailers to create and manage their digital marketing campaigns with a proprietary process we call the “customer connection cycle’ to engage, promote and reward customers activities in real-time across digital and media channels.
How we do it:
We have developed the most advanced loyalty and digital marketing technology platform specifically for convenience store and foodservice retailers globally.
Retailers use our self-service dashboard to create and manage loyalty driven marketing campaigns that increase purchases with their existing customers, as well as effectively target and acquire new customers through partners or paid media channels.
One core component of live loyalty is gamification. We have gamified branding, loyalty and promotions. We believe this approach is essential in order to get customers’ attention and ultimately truly engage them with repeatable actions thereby winning their loyalty.
Check out some of our exciting/proven results here:
About Me:
Chief Content Officer, Liquid Barcodes and Independent Loyalty Consultant
With over twenty-five years marketing experience, I specialise in loyalty marketing consulting, managing consumer loyalty propositions, strategy and operations. In addition to working with Liquid Barcodes, my clients have included Telefonica O2 Priority, Three Mobile, Electric Ireland, Allied Irish Bank and The Entertainer Group (UAE), as well as Avios – the global points currency for some of the world’s top airlines. I am also a former judge for the Loyalty Magazine Awards and host of the “Let’s Talk Loyalty” podcast.
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