With so many entrepreneurs trying to enhance the offline shopping experience by integrating online features through the mobile phone, it was inevitable that a company would link loyalty rewards and social media at the point of sale. SNAP does that, and after a year-long pilot, it officially launches today.
Customers receive a rewards card that they link to their Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare accounts on the SNAP website. Once a customer uses their reward card at a SNAP partner, the purchase is automatically updated on their social media accounts. In return, the merchant rewards the user with additional loyalty points, Facebook Credits or Foursquare-like badges.
Based on all this activity, merchants receive reports on customers’ visits and profiles. This allows them to adjust their customer proposition and loyalty program to better target customers.
Although this is all interesting, what makes SNAP really exciting is its open APIs. Not only does this enable merchants to integrate SNAP with existing reward programs, it also allows them to introduce their own innovations on the SNAP platform.
One could imagine merchants partnering with each other to offer combined promotions; bars could partner with restaurants to offer customers bonus rewards if they go to both in one night or bookshops could partner with coffee shops.
Another opportunity would be for merchants to base their reward programs not only on a customer’s individual purchases, but also on their friends’ purchases. E.g. customers would receive incrementally higher rewards according to how many of their Facebook Friends have visited a merchant.
Clearly, SNAP is a young startup and its product is still a work in progress. However, the opportunities in this area are undoubtedly very exciting and SNAP seems to be going about it in the right way by sharing its API and enabling merchants to develop innovative twists on their platform.
No comments:
Post a Comment