Loyalty Marketing

Restaurants, retailers partner with STM Mobile Loyalty Program

Technology-enabled customer disruption is not strictly the province of retailers. Montreal’s public transportation authority, Société de transport de Montréal (STM), is in the midst of a successful pilot of a loyalty program that uses advanced geolocation and real-time mobile messaging to disrupt the public transportation customer experience. And in another sign of how traditional silos in the customer experience are falling, retailers are playing an active role. 

The emergence of omnichannel commerce is dramatically changing the retail equation, both in how customers travel the path to purchase and how retailers anticipate and meet customer demand. Mike Webster, senior VP and general manager of Oracle Retail, offered Chain Store Age his perspective on how retailers must alter their approach to both systems and business processes to ensure they deliver a seamless experience across all customer touchpoints, one that both converts sales and builds long-term satisfaction and loyalty.   

Ann Arbor, Mich. – Amazon.com and L.L. Bean tied for the highest company-level customer satisfaction scores during the 2013 holiday season. According to the ForeSee Experience Index: 2013 U.S. Retail Edition, Amazon and L.L. Bean both scored 90, while Priceline had the lowest company-level satisfaction score (75) of 100 top retailers included in the Index.

The study offers a comprehensive view of satisfaction at the company-level and across every applicable sales channel including store, contact center, web and mobile.

Vancouver, British Columbia -- Mobile shopping continues to grow at a rapid pace, with an increasing number of mobile shoppers embracing Internet retailer apps, social shopping apps, and brick-and-mortar retail apps to enhance their shopping experience. However, new research prepared by Yankee Group for mobile analytics firm Mobdia Technology shows usage of these apps varies widely depending on many factors, including the type and quality of the mobile app.

Japan’s biggest e-commerce player uses third-party marketplace model to expand

Most U.S. consumers, and many retailers for that matter, have probably never heard of Rakuten. But if Japan’s largest e-commerce marketplace has its way, that will soon change: The company has set its sights on becoming a household name in the United States. An even loftier goal: outpacing e-commerce giant Amazon.com.

The mobile channel by definition extends retailing to an almost limitless range of touchpoints, since mobile devices bring the store to wherever the customer goes. Yet current trends in mobile retailing center on tying disparate touchpoints closer together using mobile technology.

Last week, I looked back at 2013 and how the biggest single trend in retail IT was customers using connective technology to take control of the shopping experience. This week, I look forward to the new year of 2014, when the biggest single trend in retail IT will be customer disruption.

Coupons.com, a leading provider of digital printable coupons, digital paperless coupons and mobile promotions, has acquired Yub. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Yub allows consumers to link digital offers and promotions to payment cards for instant savings when they use the cards for in-store purchases. Merchants, retailers and restaurants can easily track offers from online clicks to offline purchases. Coupons.com plans to bring its scale, affiliate network reach and merchant base to the Yub platform to increase consumer adoption.