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Posts tagged retail
GS1 white paper “Mobile in Retail”
1 year ago
Mobilize Systems are working with GS1, the global standards body, to help retailers realise the benefits of mobile marketing. Mobilize Systems, the marketing innovation and technology services provider for mobile marketing in retail, was pleased to see the release this week of GS1’s white paper Mobile in Retail. It provides some useful insights for anyone looking at benefiting from mobile marketing in the retail sector.
GS1, a leading global standards organisation dedicated to the design and implementation of global standards and solutions in supply and demand chains world-wide, released its long anticipated white paper. The paper is comprehensive and GS1 researchers have been granted substantial access to the key decision makers and pioneers among the world’s FMCG manufacturers and international retail chains. Its key purpose is to identify the potential for mobile to brands and retailers. It highlights 10 areas, including coupons and loyalty where mobile is deemed to have a particular impact. The executive summary points to a number of areas of potential gain for businesses adopting mobile as a consumer engagement channel. They are:
Increased sales
Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty
Additional value to physical products and experiences through digital services
To illustrate the power of mobile marketing in the retail sector, the report also presented four case studies of operational schemes from around the world. One of these, SHOP SCAN SAVE®, is a mobile marketing programme operated by Mobilize, and is currently available in over 23,000 convenience outlets throughout the UK. It has been running for over 2 years and demonstrates the value to retailers, brand owners, and consumers alike.
Stefan Magnusson, managing director of Mobilize, believes that the white paper is a great step forward and will certainly help any retailer looking to reduce costs and increase customer revenues “We are pleased to be working with GS1 and fully support this initiative. Our experience and those of the participating retailers in SHOP SCAN SAVE® demonstrates how powerful this form of marketing engagement can be. In addition, it demonstrates that consumers want this style of engagement that reduces some of the frustration experienced with paper coupons and plastic cards. Above all, it’s just relevant to their lifestyle. It’s a tough time for retailers right now and we are working across the sector, helping retailers realise the benefits of increased revenues and reduced costs.”
Download the Mobile in Retail white paper here.
About
Mobilize are a marketing innovation partner helping its retail clients make stronger connections with a mobile audience, driving growth in loyalty, marketing effectiveness, revenue and profitability. It was incorporated in 2002, founded the first mobile savings club SHOP SCAN SAVE® together with Sainsbury’s at Jacksons in 2004 and since October 2007 it operates SHOP SCAN SAVE® via PayPoint terminals in more than 23,000 UK outlets. Mobilize has worked with global brand owners such as Unilever, Procter and Gamble, Nestlé and News International. Any retailer can set up Mobilize’s patented platform to work as a free standing mobile CRM engine or alongside an existing loyalty scheme.
For more information about Mobilize visit www.mobilize-systems.com
Stefan Magnusson,
Managing Director,
Mobilize Systems Ltd
Telephone: 020 7559 1433
Email: sm@mobilize-systems.com
Singapore NFC Trial Rewards Users By Giving Them The Phones
2 years ago
Here’s one way to get people to try using mobile phones to make retail payments: Give them the phones if they buy enough stuff.
That’s the deal being offered by Citibank Singapore, Visa payWave and mobile network M1 as part of a 3-month pilot program in Singapore. For the trial, which involves as many as 300 people, the companies are allowing participants to keep the Visa payWave-equipped Nokia 6212 Classic handsets if they make at least eight transactions with the phones each month.
“The aim of the pilot is to get feedback and insight into consumers’ mobile payment behavior and motivations,” said a statement announcing the trial.
This is hardly the first trial of mobile device payment technology using near-field communication (NFC). During recent years, Visa, and other credit card companies, have tried some creative programs to get folks using, or at least trying, mobile phones as payment devices. More than a year ago, about 230 Oakland, Ca., commuters were involved in a trial where they were issued NFC Samsung phones that could be used to directly pay for the subway, buy food from Jack In The Box restaurants and interact with underground posters to get directions. Six months ago, Visa ran a trial where consumers were able to transfer money using their phones to any other Visa users.
In the Singapore pilot, the phone users are able to make payments of as much as $100. The money is being deducted from their Visa card accounts. The phones work for purchases at more than 750 retailers in the nation.
In a statement, Citibank Singapore Business Director of Credit Payment Products John Denhof said mobile phone payment systems have “great potential to change the future of consumer behavior.” However, he acknowledged the existence of some daunting hurdles even in Singapore “which has one of the highest mobile phone penetration rates in the world.” Those challenges, said Denhof, include commercialization and scalability “in the current environment.”
With security rightfully being a major concern, and a big stumbling block to mobile payment adoption, the Singapore trial gives the testers three security options when using the Nokias to make purchases: They can set the phones to make payments without having to enter a passcode or confirmation, they can set them to display a prompt alerting them that a payment is being requested and asking them to give the OK or they can set them to require the entry of a 4-digit PIN before any payment is processed.
The problem with all but the first of these options is that they slow the payment process and, therefore, defeat just about the only real benefit to having a cellphone serve as a credit card. That problem is likely to be addressed during the Singapore trial by surveys of the participants to find out what they liked and disliked. “A post-pilot assessment will also be conducted to consolidate the trends in participants’ mobile payment behavior and experiences,” said the companies.
Carrefour invest in “self service” and NFC
3 years ago
From February 11, Carrefour will work together with the country’s leading mobile operators to put in place a series of large scale Near Field Communication trials that will see consumers using NFC phones to make payments via the contactless MasterCard version, of its own brand credit/loyalty card, known as Pass. At the same time it has also signed a deal to install between 1,000 and 1,500 self-checkout machines, incorporating the ability to handle a wide range of advanced payments technologies including NFC.
France’s largest retail chains and its three mobile operators have joined together under the name Ergosum to push forward the date that NFC-based mobile transactions arrive in France. Auchan, Carrefour, Castorama, Fnac, Kinepolis, Jules, Leroy Merlin and Groupement des Mousquetaires (which includes supermarket chain Intermarché) as well as most of the retailers’ financial services arms (including Banque Accord, Cofidis, Finaref and Laser) have joined the Ergosum initiative, along with mobile operators Orange, SFR and Bouygues Telecom.
By Christmas 2009, the group says, customers of the three mobile operators will be able to participate in large scale trials that enable them to use their mobile phones to pay for purchases in the group’s stores, to store and to redeem mobile coupons and to replace their existing store cards with virtual loyalty cards held and updated on their phone.
"We believe the Pass MasterCard card, an innovative card with improved consumer benefits, will help not only to build customer loyalty, but also attract and retain new cardholders to our network," says Gauthier Durand Delbecque, general manager of financial services at Carrefour Group.
"Customisation of services, flexibility in use, and the very latest in card technology including the MasterCard PayPass ‘Tap & Go’ contactless functionality has been combined into this new card programme designed specifically for the Carrefour consumer," the company says. Features include:
A card at the cutting-edge of technology enabling cardholders choice in how they pay for their purchases; either immediately from their bank account or by credit thanks to the card’s joint debit/credit functionality. As well as enabling the cardholder to choose their individual PIN number, the card is also one of the first in France to offer the MasterCard PayPass technology. As of 3Q2008, already available on nearly 44 million cards and devices across the world and as a safe, speedier and easier way to pay, cardholders simply Tap & Go for purchases up to 25 Euros.
A customizable card which extends guarantees up to five years for electrical-product purchases such as televisions and washing machines with an additional benefit of an enhanced insurance package designed by the cardholder via an exclusive webportal provided for and operated by MasterCard.
A loyalty card which enhances the existing Carrefour and Pass advantages such as the doubling of some discount benefits for cardholders making at least one monthly purchase in a non-Carrefour group merchant.
