Customer Loyalty Programs is one of the marketing strategies to glue customers to the concerned brand. These programs incentivize people on their expenditure at outlets that are part of the network. The incentives are generally in the form of discounts or redeemable reward points for each unit of currency spent for the purchase of goods and services.
Rewards program also act as an effective market research tool for brands. Whenever a customer uses the loyalty card while making a purchase, the customer’s information and purchasing pattern are made available to the issuing company or the outlet. This information over time, will help the companies decide on the effective form of marketing, offers, advertisements etc. Using the information collected from the customers, they will also be able to create custom offers for individuals based on their purchase pattern. In the end, all these translate to more sales and captured customer, who is more likely to make repeated purchases from the same outlet/chain or brand.
Loyalty Programs on Blockchain
We are living in the times of Bitcoin, an innovative digital currency that is transforming the global economy. With money being redefined by bitcoin, the mainstream financial institutions are now rushing to adopt bitcoin’s underlying blockchain technology with hopes of creating a faster, cheaper and more efficient banking and financial system. Customer loyalty programs are not far behind either. Ribbit.me is one such customer loyalty solutions provider who has deviated from the norm to take advantage of blockchain technology.
Ribbit.me is on its way to transforming the loyalty program industry which has not seen much innovation from the past 20 years or more. Ribbit.me has created a unified customer rewards program built on a blockchain to offer real-time award and redemption of reward points. The highly customizable platform can be used for instant rewards credit as soon as the customer executes an action confirming his/her purchase. E.g. While flying, the customer will receive his rewards points at the gate where his boarding pass is scanned. He will have reward points credited to his account even before he boards the plane. This will allow the customer to use those points on the airplane. Ribbit.me allows cross branding and promotions so that users can use reward points gained from one brand/outlet/company at other partner business. Also, vendors can choose to categorize the points depending on the kind of service. E.g. Points gained from staying in hotels are stored separately from shopping points and air miles. However, the customer can convert one type of points to another if required.
By facilitating instant rewards and redemption, Ribbit.me reduces the burden on businesses and makes it more convenient for the customer at the same time. Merchants and customers will soon be able to trade these Ribbit.me points as well. Being the first company to create a crypto-token based rewards system, Ribbit.me has entered into various strategic partnerships. Recently the company has raised an investment of $1.5 million in the seed round. Hayaat Group, a prominent investment company with its presence in the Middle East and Europe has invested in Ribbit.me with Dubai based Privity FZ LLE acting as the financial advisor for the deal.
With the recent influx of money, Ribbit.me will be accelerating development by expanding its team.
Ref: BitBeat - How Bitcoin Technology Could Shake Up the Loyalty-Points Business
