Customer LoyaltyAn effective loyalty-driven marketing program can have a big impact on retail business. Innovative merchants are now using retail automation and loyalty marketing to soften the impact of aggressive competition and an unpredictable economy. The bottom-line is that automated loyalty points can provide an effective and efficient method to keep customers coming back over the long-term.
Every enterprise has varying needs, and CATAPULT Loyalty Points allows each user to set the parameters that work best for them. Loyalty points are accrued within the CATAPULT system based on customer purchases. The merchant defines a base accrual rate; the percentage of the selling price at which a participating consumer will accrue points. The accrual rate is adjustable by item and / or customer.
In a multi-store chain, item-level accrual rates can be adjusted by store or across the enterprise. For example, let's say there is a specific high-margin item store management would like to promote for one month. Authorized users can simply enter the change to adjust the single item to accrue double points. This can be done at a single store or at HQ for all multi-store locations.
Specific customers can also be flagged within the system to receive different rates of point accrual. For example, to increase customer loyalty in a highly competitive area, users might allow customers who shop before a major holiday to accrue double points for a week. It can all be adjusted in a matter of seconds, from any location, at any time.
CATAPULT's powerful loyalty program doesn't stop there; every enterprise has certain items with lower-than-average margins, these low-margin items can be flagged to disallow point redemption. Customers are still able to accrue points for these items, but the system will automatically prevent point redemption at the point of sale on these selected, non eligible items. Items can also be flagged to not accrue points if the retailer so chooses or laws mandate.
Maintaining and adding customer accounts has never been easier. Customers wishing to become loyalty points program members can be added at the POS within seconds. The cashier simply touches a key* on the POS menu and enters the customer's information to be associated with their given customer number. To speed the process even further, stores can set up bulk open accounts, associate a customer number during the sale and the customer can fill out the needed information to be entered later. It could not be easier! Authorized store personnel have the ability to edit new members and set loyalty accrual parameters after the account has been created. When a loyalty customer is associated with a sale by either card scan or search function, the previously accrued points will automatically appear underneath the sale subtotal at the top of the POS screen. To redisplay the loyalty balance at any time, the cashier simply presses a key.
One of the greatest benefits of the CATAPULT Loyalty Points system is that CATAPULT tracks the accrued points and lets the consumer to use their points during the tendering process. In this way, the customer is sure to get only the points owed to them. If the customer does not have enoughpoints to redeem for the entire purchase, CATAPULT will automatically split tender the sale. Merchants can choose to print the points accrued and the updated loyalty balance anywhere on the receipt, so there is no mystery or frustration when customers want to know how many points they have available.
Merchants can also allow customers to donate points to charity organizations at a ratio of the merchant's choosing by using the Paid-In and Paid-Out functionality in CATAPULT. This can be a great way to build community involvement and participate in charitable causes. For example, a customer can donate their points to a local food bank automatically through the store's system. The merchant will simply process a Paid-In for the amount of each consumer's donation, and then process a Paid-Out on a periodic basis to the charities of the consumer's choosing in cash, check or points. Tracking donations to individual charities is fully automated and accounted for from the POS to specific General Ledger (GL) entries.
Multi-store merchants will appreciate the seamless automation CATAPULT Loyalty Points provides across the enterprise. Loyalty consumers can accrue or redeem points at any location without hassle. Cashiers can also look up all customer accounts at the POS, no matter where the account originated. This ensures customers will shop at their favorite retailer even when traveling or shopping across town. For security, loyalty accounts are updated instantly (enterprise–wide) should the customer redeem points. This prevents customers from double-dipping.
ECRS understands that store branding is an important part of retailer marketing. To this end, CATAPULT Loyalty allows each retailer to set the desired name of their unique loyalty program. Simply type in the name of the reward program and this name will be associated with all system generated loyalty references from that point forward (i.e. on customer receipts, customer display screens, etc.).
CATAPULT Loyalty Points puts consumer marketing back in merchant hands and provides the ease-of-use and flexibility to make marketing programs a success.
Effective loyalty marketing has never been more automated and simpler.
Features |
Benefits |
| Custom Branding | CATAPULT doesn't impose a set name on the loyalty program; rather, the merchant brands the loyalty program to be consistent with its overall branding strategy. |
| Instant Redemption, Quick Accrual | When a consumer redeems loyalty value, the redemption is instantaneous across the whole multi-store enterprise. This prevents consumers from "gaming the system" by redeemingat multiple stores in a short period of time. CATAPULT uses a modern, secure, real-time web service architecture to process redemptions and balance checking. Accrued points post to accounts instantaneously in a single store environment and on a schedule of the merchant's choosing in a multi-store environment. |
| No Trees Required | CATAPULT's loyalty program requires no paper coupons or vouchers, nor the envelopes to send them in. Never deal with another consumer who "lost" his or her coupon again. |
| Eliminate Cumbersome Processes | No clipboards, ftp transfers, e-mail files, phone calls, or any of the other cumbersome processes involved with third-party programs to track changes in loyalty accounts. Everything pertaining to loyalty is right in CATAPULT's databases, accessible at POS or in the back office. |
| General Ledger Integration | The loyalty program generates entries for double-entry bookkeeping systems that integrate with CATAPULT General Ledger Module (sold separately). |
| Flexible Accrual Rates | The merchant decides what percentage of the selling price of merchandise will be accrued loyalty accounts. This percentage is called the base accrual rate and can be different at different stores. The accrual rate can be modified by a multiplier on each customer and each item. Item accrual rate multipliers can be different at different stores. Preventing accrual on any purchase of any particular item is easy - just set the accrual rate multiplier for that item to 0. |
| Integration with Department Defaults | Departments can have default accrual rate multipliers, with different multipliers at different stores. This makes setting up new items a breeze. |
| Reporting and Marketing | CATAPULT has easy to understand loyalty reporting integrated with its powerful filtering system. Merchants can, for example, generate postal labels or lists of e-mail addresses for loyalty customers over or under a certain point threshold. |
| Control Over Redemption | CATAPULT lets the merchant choose the items towards the purchase of which points may be used. |
| Accrued Value Representation | The merchant can present the consumer with a loyalty balance expressed as a dollar figure (e.g. $34.82) or using a points system (e.g. 3482 Bonus Bucks, Points, or anything else). |
| Quick Sign-Up | Customer ID's can be added to the system ahead of time using the customer import script. The cashier can then exchange a loyalty card for an enrollment form at point of sale, allowing data entry at the back office later. Speed at point of sale is not compromised using this method. |
| Security | Loyalty transactions are processed with rock-solid TLS encryption and are authenticated with 3DES-encrypted one-time tokens. Rest assured. Merchants control which employees can report on loyalty accounts, make adjustments to loyalty accounts, and process loyalty redemptions using Catapult's comprehensive PCI compliant authorization security system. |
| Quick Balance Check | Accrued loyalty balances are displayed at time of customer association. At any point in a transaction after a customer association, loyalty balances can be redisplayed with a simple POS key selection. |
| Tender Limits | A merchant is free to restrict the number of points which can be redeemed in a transaction. |
| Integration with CATAPULT Customer Accounts | A loyalty account is a customer account, so merchants can associate customers with just a scan of a card or by lookup. Existing customers can be converted to a loyalty customer with the check of a simple option within the customer's record. |
| Account Adjustment | Loyalty account balances can be adjusted using paid-ins and paid-outs. |
| Donation Tracking | Merchants can track donations of loyalty points to charities using Paid-Ins and Paid-Outs. |
| Intuitive Complete Redemption | Using the "Allow exact change" setting on the loyalty tender, a merchant's cashiers can redeem the maximum number of accrued points possible given the eligible items in a transaction. A merchant could integrate the loyalty tender with the "Subtotal" function in a speed key to automate this process for each transaction, reducing total liability to consumers by forcing redemption. |
| GL Activity Tracking | Provides the ability to track all loyalty points for all locations down to detailed GL activity. |
CLICK HERE to learn more about CATAPULT Loyaly Points™
Copyright © 2013 ECRS. |All rights reserved
