Retailers’ membership and loyalty card schemes risk backfiring due to poor bar code scanning implementation at the store
Membership, loyalty and rewards programmes are now a regular feature on the high street - everywhere from food, fashion to even quick service retailers. Whilst the Tesco Clubcard was the innovator, most UK retailers have now fully embraced and adopted loyalty schemes from Harrods to Pizza Hut. Shoppers have voted with their feet with over half of consumers owning one or more loyalty cards, and 46% stating that they regularly collect and spend points on a reward card. Currently, 20% of smartphone users have downloaded and actively use mobile apps. In a highly competitive and changing environment, retailers have found great value in using such schemes to maintain customers’ loyalty and promotional means to increase their spend.
Many retailers have gone one step further and digitised their physical cards enabling the customers to collect points or rewards by scanning their smartphones in store. Having cards always available on a smartphone is far more convenient and also has environmental and financial benefits such as reducing plastic waste. M&S Sparks is a prime example with over half a million customers having download this app from the PlayStore alone. Points can be registered at the till via a Datalogic Gryphon hybrid bar code scanner. This enables the assistant also to scan item bar codes from the merchandise and flip the scanner around to present the Sparks code (from a card or smartphone) to register their loyalty points.
Applications such as Stocard, CardStar, FidMe, Stampt and numerous others have been widely and freely downloaded to Android and Apple smartphones. Stocard alone boasts over 10 million downloads. Customers simply take a photograph of the bar code from their loyalty card and this is rendered automatically into a digital bar code which can be easily retrieved each time they visit the store. This liberates the customer from having to carry many multiple plastic cards in the wallet or purse. These applications allow hundreds of different UK loyalty cards to be accessed and used from smartphones.
Membership, loyalty and rewards programmes are now a regular feature on the high street - everywhere from food, fashion to even quick service retailers. Whilst the Tesco Clubcard was the innovator, most UK retailers have now fully embraced and adopted loyalty schemes from Harrods to Pizza Hut. Shoppers have voted with their feet with over half of consumers owning one or more loyalty cards, and 46% stating that they regularly collect and spend points on a reward card. Currently, 20% of smartphone users have downloaded and actively use mobile apps. In a highly competitive and changing environment, retailers have found great value in using such schemes to maintain customers’ loyalty and promotional means to increase their spend.
Many retailers have gone one step further and digitised their physical cards enabling the customers to collect points or rewards by scanning their smartphones in store. Having cards always available on a smartphone is far more convenient and also has environmental and financial benefits such as reducing plastic waste. M&S Sparks is a prime example with over half a million customers having download this app from the PlayStore alone. Points can be registered at the till via a Datalogic Gryphon hybrid bar code scanner. This enables the assistant also to scan item bar codes from the merchandise and flip the scanner around to present the Sparks code (from a card or smartphone) to register their loyalty points.
Applications such as Stocard, CardStar, FidMe, Stampt and numerous others have been widely and freely downloaded to Android and Apple smartphones. Stocard alone boasts over 10 million downloads. Customers simply take a photograph of the bar code from their loyalty card and this is rendered automatically into a digital bar code which can be easily retrieved each time they visit the store. This liberates the customer from having to carry many multiple plastic cards in the wallet or purse. These applications allow hundreds of different UK loyalty cards to be accessed and used from smartphones.
Third party apps create the false expectation that all retailers listed will be able to scan these digital bar codes in the store but the reality is often sadly very different. The problems occur at those retailers with older bar code the scanners, which use laser technology. These are simply physically incapable of scanning any bar code from any smartphone.
Some retailers who have not yet digitised their own loyalty schemes within a mobile app have been inadvertently and unwittingly caught out. Whilst third part apps can be scanned in store at those retailers who have upgraded to 2D image scanners, there are many retailers which have not yet done so. This creates enormous customer dissatisfaction when the smartphones cannot be scanned and are then declined or need to be manually keyed in. This creates embarrassment, unnecessary queuing and the very opposite effect of loyalty and a sense of belonging. Moreover, a total disconnect between the online and instore experience.
Forward thinking retailers have already replaced their scanners with the latest 2D imaging technology. Waitrose has deployed Datalogic GFS4470 2D image scanners underneath their credit card readers at their manned checkout lanes. These enable both plastic and mobile bar codes to be scanned by the customer. Having a second dedicated scanner for their customers is the preferred route. Customers are reluctant to hand over that smart phones to be scanned by an operator in case the phone gets damaged, stolen or they have to receive an incoming call. Waitrose also implemented Datalogic scanner image scanning technology as the default for their self scan checkouts manufactured by Diebold Nixdorf. This provides a fully joined up experience at all stages of the customer journey whether they are using the Waitrose app - or Stocard, CardStar and any other such third party mobile wallet apps coming into the market.
Upgrading to the latest imaging technology can be fast and pain free. Adding the latest cutting edge technology typically involves absolutely no change to the POS system. In most cases, it is just a case of swapping out the POS scanner. Upgrading the scanner also provides myriad additional benefits to the retailer, such as improving the speed and productivity of scanning merchandise at the POS. This results in faster transactions and less queuing, further enhancing customer loyalty and reducing potential walk always.