Differentiation in an Undifferentiated Market Merchants realize that having a loyalty program is a standard requirement and not an added feature in consumer eyes, but the structure of their loyalty offerings can differ between verticals and between merchants operating in the same vertical. In the fuel sector specifically, it can...
Does Your App Accept the New Consumer Currency – Data?
Consumers are offering data, a new currency, in exchange for truly exceptional experiences. Like monetary currencies, the value consumers receive for this new currency will vary, depending on where they exchange it. To succeed, your app must offer an experience in line with consumer value exchange rate expectations. Mobile apps...
Voice Assistants: A New Mobile Frontier for Merchants, Part II of II
In my previous article, we took a look at the rise in adoption of voice-activated personal assistants by consumers. This follow-up will examine the effect that the rise in voice assistant adoption will have on the merchant landscape. Voice-activated assistants, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, are allowing consumers...
Customer Retention: Q&A with Loyalty360
The following has been re-posted from Loyalty360. The original post can be found here. Customer retention in 2018, regardless of industry or brand, is completely different than it was even five years ago. Daniel Kahan, Consultant with W. Capra Consulting Group, sat down with Loyaty360 to discuss common mistakes...
Should Your Organization Find a Loyalty Partner?
If a loyalty member is part of competitor programs as well, are they actually loyal? In many verticals, consumers follow incentives to register for competing loyalty programs. This is because, for large merchants, a loyalty program in and of itself can no longer be considered a competitive advantage—a loyalty program...
Forecasting the Future of Digital Wallets
The question of digital wallet acceptance is a tired one – but for many merchants a decision they might want to reconsider. Stored credentials, defined as a system or service that stores multiple payment methods for use across multiple websites, is not a new concept. In fact, many would say...
Is Your App Best for the Job?
Customers install your app hoping to complete a task to achieve a desired outcome. Harvard professor Clayton M. Christensen describes this as a Job to be Done in his book, Competing Against Luck: The Story of Innovation and Customer Choice.1 He defines the Job to be Done as the “progress...
The Loyalty Sweet Spot
What’s the sweet spot of a loyalty program? If you asked a consumer, you may get a far different answer than if you asked a business. The consumer wants: free items (that they would typically buy anyway) rewarding their current behaviors and shopping frequency at the places where they shop...
The Voice Assistant: A New Mobile Frontier for Merchants, Part I of II
Voice activated personal assistants like Amazon’s Alexa or Apple’s Siri have exploded onto the scene. It’s expected that by 2022, 50% of US households will have at least one smart speaker with personal voice assistant capability.[1] While the number of devices in use is huge, the functionality they currently offer...
The Lifelong Value of Retail Experience
Run a register before you run a company 13 years ago, I traded in the manager’s keys of my gas station for a computer, a cubicle, and title of Operations Analyst. Many titles and office-based jobs later, I continue to call on the skills and experiences from my job as...
Answer 7 Questions to Discover a Winning App Strategy
The Android and Apple app stores now present more than 5 million apps1 to consumers and are dominated by two behemoth brands, Facebook and Google, which publish 8 of the top 10 apps.2 Developing a winning app strategy in this hyper-competitive app marketplace is a challenge for any size retailer....
Approaching Consumer-Facing Programs: Asking the Right Questions to Deliver Maximum Impact
Earlier this year on CAPRAplus we discussed ensuring that the wants and needs of the consumer are put first when developing any consumer engagement program by asking the question, “Do my consumers really want this?” This time around we will look inward to the merchant to ensure consumer engagement programs...