Knowledge Base

Retailers and Restaurant owners around the world looking to ways of attracting their customers, and makes sure they stay with them. There are many ways to do that.

1. Give discounts and show that you are lower priced than the others in the same market.

2. Provide loyalty program, where by offering customers with benefit every time they do a purchase.

Unlike giving discounts, the loyalty program works well, cause it brings back the customer. Where as the discount is customer benefits one time, does not guarantee repeat purchase.

Key benefits of loyalty program

1. Promotes repeat purchase.

2. Promotions can be targeted, such as item based loyalty points etc.

3. Prompt customer to keep coming back so that they earn more points.

4. Make sure that the business owner does not immediately lose money in promotions such as discounts, with loyalty the discount (money goes out) only when the redemption takes place.

5. Some customers may never redeem, so it becomes benefit to the retailer.

6. The business gets hold of customer information for his analysis or CRM (customer relation management) purpose.

7. Business managers gets to see who is buying , what.

8. Businesses will be in better position to discuss deals with vendors, cause they can provide better sales records their vendors.

Other Considerations

1. Program that must be Loyalty Driven
It is important a good loyalty program needs to be exclusive (but easy to join), offer rewards of high perceived value (but not at the retailer’s expense) and present your brand in a positive way. A few other key points to consider:

Members or the Loyalty Customer only. Promotions should put the retailer in a position of gaining repeat customers. Providing non-members access to discounts reduces the allure of loyalty programs and dilutes their effectiveness and appeal. Ensure that promotions are for registered customers only, and use them to entice new customers to join the program. Retailers will need a POS solution that can identify loyalty members using a membership number at the time of sale to provide rewards and track purchases.

Offer rewards that are Valuable and Easy to process. If your program has a prize at the end of the tunnel, make it worth customers’ while. That means retail rewards programs shouldn’t match the Dave and Buster’s arcade model. That is, don’t make customers spend hundreds of dollars to receive a generic, cheap and uninteresting reward. Instead, provide a reasonable reward of higher perceived value that also encourages continual spending and participation – like future discounts.

2. Easy to Understand Program
Developing a strong program oftentimes sells itself, but taking the initiative to get the program goes a long way, too. Most important in developing a large loyalty program is making the program easy to join, easy to use and easy to share with customers’ friends and family.

Reduce the point of entry for program access. Previously, leaving a membership card at home shouldn’t bar customers from receiving purchase credits. Allow customers to use their email address, phone number, account number or a unique user name to connect purchases to their loyalty account. It’s a win-win because the retailer gets more valuable data, and customers receive more reward benefits.

Entice customers to return – and bring a friend along, too.These rewards hit on multiple levels: they provide incentive to return to your store, as well as bringing new customers in. For example, a local burrito chain in Austin recently ran a promotion where if a customer brought a friend on the next visit, both could eat reduced price. Loyal customers are some of your strongest brand ambassadors, and sharing a good experience is likely to rub off on friends. Email marketing features within POS solutions allow you to easily reach out to members and have them connect with friends for additional rewards.

Collect and Analyze Good Customer Spend Data. Once you’ve developed a great loyalty program, mining data to discover trends, weaknesses and strengths is one of the greatest benefits of a loyalty program – as well as one of the most frequently ignored or underused. This is where POS systems with strong CRM and loyalty-specific functionality become a great asset.

Play to different customer types. The SmartPOS or the RestPOS have features to handle different types of customers, where the businesses can offer different type of cards, the ability to customize multiple loyalty programs and set parameters such as point ranges per purchase and redemption methods.

Make promotional decisions based on sales analysis. Analysis of your sales can identify your weakest or slowest moving items, making them potentially great promotional items to your loyalty members. Alternatively, you can find the items that sell the fastest and allow loyalty members first chance at purchasing them, further developing the value of the program. Reporting tools that pull customer data will be useful in determining future promotions.

Category management is a retailing and purchasing concept in which the range of products purchased by a business organization or sold by a retailer is broken down into discrete groups of similar or related products; these groups are known as product categories (examples of grocery categories might be: tinned fish, washing detergent, toothpastes).

There is a huge difference between natural and mainstream when it comes to category management. I use the term "true" category management to differentiate the difference. True category management is an essential process that, when done properly, can determine your level of success in the marketplace.

Unfortunately, many natural and organic companies either overlook or say they can't afford to invest in it.

Here's why you should make the investment in your natural store: Category management provides strategies to better connect with consumers, develop brands, manage trade spending, optimize product placement and grow sales. Combining business intelligence, logistics data, syndicated and POS data and consumer data, true category management maximizes business results.

Category management truly is the glue that unites the different business functions. It helps retailers identify opportunities for sustainable growth, increased sales and increased foot traffic. When done correctly, it grows brands.
Are you leveraging category management to the fullest or not at all? Here are the key aspects for success:

1. Analytics

Analytics, both basic and advanced, are at the heart of category management. As a road map to achieving your goals, they encompass all aspects of trade management, business planning, assortment analysis and consumer awareness. When applied correctly, they provide invaluable business insights and actionable recommendations.

2. Trade Marketing Support

Trade marketing encompasses all aspects of promotion, pricing, product placement, assortment, merchandising and brand development. It includes analysis of historical events as well as projections for future sales trends.

3. Consumer Insights

Consumer insights include all consumer-related information including consumer buying and shopping habits. From reducing long checkout lines to providing the best selection of merchandise at the best possible price, the ultimate goal is to improve customer satisfaction.

4. Database Management

Database management, also known as business intelligence, encompasses several different data sources such as internal and external data sources, syndicated data, retailer point-of-sale data, consumer data and marketing data. Talented category managers can help you bring together all the different data sources in a useful way. This will maximize efficiencies within the organization while building a strong sales story to help you win at shelf.

5. Shelf Management

Shelf management includes product placement and merchandising on retailer shelves. Specifically it helps the retailer maximize sales per linear foot, drive foot traffic to stores, increase customer shopping basket size and have a competitive advantage in their marketplace.

6. Category Reviews

Category reviews serve as a review of category performance. They provide the framework for retailers and manufacturers to work together in setting goals, expectations and strategic plans for future category growth. Scorecards can be used to help obtain and measure category growth objectives.

7. Retail Sales Support

Category managers can and should support sales at retail, such as by providing fact-based selling to support traditional sales efforts. Category management should offer a somewhat unbiased objective with the purpose of increasing a retailer's sales.