In this instant society, where everything needs to be quick and easy, would it be simpler to stop cutting out and collecting paper coupons and just switch over to digital loyalty cards? Well that’s exactly what they did in San Francisco.
A smart card
You’ve heard of smartphones; let me introduce you to smart cards. They may be the coupons of your future. These have been tested in trial runs in New York, Chicago, Cincinnati and previously mentioned San Francisco. Its creators feel that it is ready to go country-wide. No more ‘buy several get one free’ paper coupons. All you need now is a digital card that can be swept at the checkout. The coupons you cut out of your paper or print on the Internet are pretty much a one shot deal. So the creators of these smart loyalty cards are doing their very best to encourage loyalty to a specific store. By returning again and again to do your shopping, you can save again and again with your loyalty card.
It’s actually pretty simple from all standpoints. Merchants can sign up for this program on its creator’s website absolutely free of charge. They then create their own store specific loyalty cards in any way they please. Shoppers will be able to use their smartphone to scan the card, which by the way is also a free app, and purchases which are reward eligible will get digitally put directly into their loyalty card. And for those who seem to think that everyone wants to know what they’re doing, the information can be shared on Facebook and Twitter. I don’t know, is it really anyone’s business if someone is just two boxes away from getting one box of Trojans free?
The world has gone wireless, and now the old paper coupons are going from paper to digital, wireless things of the future. And it’s catching on. Merchants having already jumped on board list in the hundreds. It seems unstoppable and inevitable. You, the consumer, will benefit through savings; while the merchants will benefit from the analysis provided by these cards. Merchants can check on shopper’s buying behavior, statistics and other analytical information.
Take heart however, oh loyal coupon cutter… they’re not doing away with coupons… just the paper they’re printed on.
What happened to shopping online?
Seems everyone was shopping online for a while there. Then the coupon craze hit and people, in return, started hitting the stores with their coupons, coupons and more coupons. Nowadays, some stores are utilizing the fact that almost everyone has a mobile phone; so why not offer discounts and coupons that they can scan with their phones, rather than carry around envelopes full of paper coupons. But is this an exact science? What do merchants need to know before they can utilize this system? Well for starters they need to know that while people are shopping almost every single one of them is doing something with their mobile phone. Or 60% of them are looking for exact store hours and locations, over 65% are checking out the reviews of products of interest and another 70% are checking out prices at other stores. If merchants are not on top of the game, they could lose out to all this available information.
It’s actually a smart move on the part of the merchant. This is what is getting people up out of their computer chairs and out to the stores. More and more customers are purchasing smart phones every day. Keeping up with that trend is a smart business move. People love to use their phones for anything from research to the ridiculous. Saving money by scanning a product is an attractive opportunity to the smartphone fanatics of today.
And the merchants are benefiting even more. They can now track reviews by making them easier for the consumer to complete. They can offer games and rewards for things such as “liking” a certain page from the store’s website, spending a specified amount of money while at the store or even something as simple as utilizing the store’s fitting room to try something on. They know exactly what’s going on in the minds of today’s purchasers. They’ll be able to tell if you shopped in the home and garden section this week. If you did they may choose to send a coupon to your smartphone for gardening or lawn supplies. And the truly appreciated part of this whole thing is that all these apps and memberships and so on are 100%, absolutely free.
And who doesn’t love free things?