Right message....to the right person....at the right time

Today, most retailers do not have the complete Loyalty-based CRM system needed to form and deliver the “strong loyalty value proposition” noted by the Direct Marketing Association.

Most large retail chains have a loyalty membership program but, on the average, these programs are ineffective, leaving ~51% (DMA, 2008) of their members inactive.

Retailers want the gains in revenue, margins & customers that can be achieved with a continuous, personalized, highly relevant communications program.

• Proof of Concept: The success of market leaders such as Kroger and CVS in taking their active loyalty member to 89% has driven other retail chains to seek an effective loyalty program.

• The Standard is Suffering - Newspaper Coupons: Although coupon usage is up 300%, the traditional newspaper method for delivering coupons is suffering from Sunday subscription reductions (as high as 15% for some major papers) while consumer use of the internet and smart phones is growing. “58 percent of respondents believe their coupon use would increase if they could … have it automatically connected to an electronically swiped frequent shopper card” (ICOM 2008 survey).

• Key to Success: “Visibility into customers and their transactions is of paramount importance. A strong loyalty value proposition encourages customers to identify themselves, allow their purchases to be tracked and “opt in” to your electronic messaging stream. The data from your loyalty program drives customized offers and communications. (DMA).

• Effective Programs are Expensive: A study by McKinsey & Company estimated that a loyalty program’s first year can cost as much as $30 million.

Retail Choice’s RPM:

• Captures member purchasing information in real-time;

• Analyzes the product data to trigger personalized offers

• Delivers the offer to each member via their preferred electronic media, email, text message, and/or WEB Portal.

• Software as a Service (SaaS) Business Model – Retail Choice is structured as a services business, charging customers for the transaction data captured and for the member offers delivered each month. Retail Choice’s monthly pay-as-you-use-it fees, replace the current expensive first year start-up costs as well the on-going high costs of maintaining a staff of specialists to install, integrate, operate, and upgrade.

How it Works

RPM is a Opt-in based CRM. It supports two primary processes.

• Opt-in Program Creation
  RPM gives the retailer’s marketing group the complete capability to create programs for the loyalty members. In designing programs, the retailer’s marketing group can consider: the revenue associated with manufacturer promotions; satisfying corporate objectives; and the analytics information from Retail Choice. Program designs include: the term, definition of the event that would trigger a message being delivered; and the message content. RPM is capable of handling a large number of over lapping loyalty communications programs simultaneously.

• Opt-in Program Production
  Once one or more programs are input into the system, RPM continuously reviews the member data as it is captured looking for the triggering events. Each and every triggering event identified will cause the Multi-Channel Communications Engine to deliver the personalized message to the member with the triggering event.

The Software Technology

RPM is comprised of four integrated modules.

• The Xtran Transaction Switch
  Xtran interfaces with the retailer’s current system. Xtran contains a library of Front End Devices made to fit all brands and configurations of POS systems or other data feeds. Xtran is also capable of supporting any communications medium to connect to the data source. Regardless of the format or source of incoming data streams, Xtran converts the captured data to the proper format for RPM’s Enterprise Loyalty Solution. Xtran is a production proven module. It has been utilized for high volume, real-time credit card and gift card processing in addition loyalty card processing. Xtran is fully capable of authorizing transactions in real-time.
   

• Enterprise Loyalty Solution
  The core capabilities of the Enterprise Loyalty Solution (ELS) are also production proven. ELS stores the data from Xtran tieing members with their purchasing history accepting either Universal Product Codes (UPC) or NADC formats. ELS contains a number of real-time and near-time applications that operate on the loyalty data. Example applications include loyalty member dollar rewards management as well as the more traditional loyalty point system management. One of the recent application additions allows the retailer’s marketing organization to set triggers that cause a personalized message to be sent to a specific member. ELS drives the Multi-channel Communications Engine.
   

• The Multi-Channel Communications Engine
  The Multi-Channel Communications Engine delivers messages and offers to the loyalty member. The retailer’s marketing organization instructs the Multi-Channel Communications Engine via a WEB Portal.
   

• The Data Warehouse and Analysis Engines
  Loyalty member data is replicated into a Data Warehouse from the Enterprise Loyalty Solution. The Data Warehouse is used by the retailer’s marketing organization to analyze the data while the Enterprise Loyalty Solution continuing with real-time transaction processing. A wide variety of analytics can be used to identify methods/programs with improved relevance to loyalty members while growing retailer revenues and margins. Marketing can also plan effective campaigns for manufacturer promotions. Being effective with these campaigns will result in larger marketing budgets from the manufacturer.

Contact us at 218.727.4246 or e-mail us below. We can help you implement a unified processing platform today.

General Inquiries: moland@retailchoicecard.com
Sales: rschwartz@retailchoicecard.com
Strategic Alliances: rschwartz@retailchoicecard.com
Customer Support: customersupport@retailchoicecard.com