Rewards in exchange for data
Promotions programs are essentially an exchange of information for incentive. Retailers or brands want to know as much as possible about their customers, and what they buy, in order to sell them relevant products more often. In exchange, customers expect some kind of discount, early access to sales or, especially at the higher end of the market, be given the opportunity to purchase new merchandise like a new spring collection of clothing, first. The payoff of a well-planned program can be substantial, and it costs less to retain a customer than it does for a retailer to go out and market itself to a new one.
Membership and loyalty programs have been a part of the retail landscape for years, but they have become increasingly important as retailers vie for customers both online, and in their physical stores. Large FMCG brands like Nestlé have been kept under control of their retailers, who charge them to access their customers buying habits. They have been struggling for years to collect the data. Some brands now want to move away from traditional retailer data sourcing and become a “member-centric” brand.
However, loyalty programs and other marketing tactics such as price cuts and promotions, are effective only in the long term, to the extent that they entice more distributors to stock the brand, or build a presence in the marketplace. An effective way to grow a brand’s market share, or become big, is to get more people to buy the brand rather than try to get current customers to buy it more often. This is why solutions designed for brands’ data acquisition need to monitor the sales location as much as the consumers’ habits. Knowing about the merchants may be a hard job when it comes to sell candy at independent convenience stores. Typically, these merchants are delivered by wholesalers which strive hard to protect their distribution channels and dealerships.
Ogloba’s Approach
Ogloba has developed an EFTPOS terminal based solution equipped with a scanner (via the RS232 port). Independent convenience stores activate promotional cards (by swipe, and by providing a mobile phone number). Terminals are able to scan any SKU barcode, read the card’s magnetic strip and send that information to the Ogloba server.
Connecting via a graphic web user interface, brands define which SKUs will take part in the promotion and for what period of time. They decide on how many points are to be awarded for each SKU. Based on these rules, the Ogloba solution filters the SKU out of the message from the terminal and calculate points earned by the card. A message is returned to the POS with the information regarding points earned, points balance, and money balance. All of this information is printed on a receipt. Points are converted to money based on conversion rules and watermarks defined by the brand.
The card is used by the customers to pay at participating locations such as gas stations, accepted by the Ogloba platform, and the amount counter of the card is debited like any bankcard. An anti-fraud module prevents the merchants from multiple scans of a product not sold, and enables the brand to take corrective anti-fraud action.
The platform includes a gateway terminal management system to authorize terminals to connect to our platform. A real time inventory system manages the replenishment.
