Many retailers already have well-established gift card and loyalty schemes designed to increase customer engagement, and encourage customers to become loyal, repeat customers. They are proven to be successful for retailers, and popular with customers. At Ogloba we never stop trying to find innovative ways for retailers and customers to add value to the card programs we offer. Ogloba have introduced a new kind of card, the “savings jar” shopping card, that allows customers to save the value of any change they receive as part of a cash purchase transaction on to a rechargeable card. The function can be used with a dedicated card or activated into any shopping or gift card we have.
How does a savings jar card work?
Usually, when a customer makes a cash purchase, any change that is due is returned to them in the form of cash. However, the monetary value of the change is often insignificant enough that many customers will be happy to load it on to the card so that, over time, the change credit gradually adds up to a not inconsiderable sum.
In the first instance it would work like this. A customer buys $19.75 worth of goods, and pays with $20 in cash. Instead of simply giving $0.25 in cash, the cashier asks the customer if they would like to be issued with a savings jar card. If the customer agrees, the $0.25 is immediately loaded on to the card as credit. The process is simple, whereby the cashier would punch a ‘cash return’ key on the POS, and swipe or scan a card to automatically transfer the cash balance to be returned to the card account. The card is then handed to the customer. During subsequent shipping trips, the customer can decide whether they want to receive their change as cash, or credit.
Benefits for all
Customers enjoy getting into the habit of saving money and will be encouraged to shop at retailers that facilitate this. Customers can redeem the value of the card at any time but, whereas change that is saved as cash can be spent anywhere, with a savings jar card the accumulated value can only be spent with the issuing retailer. Additionally, as with gift cards, the value on the card is likely to be viewed as “free” money constituting a minimum purchase threshold, encouraging customers to spend above the value available on the card.
