February 13, 2015 Industry news
Retailers and brands, rely on offers and coupons to engage new and existing customers. With the surge in consumer demand to use smartphones and tablets online and in store, finding a way to successfully distribute these offers digitally is becoming a key challenge for marketers. However, due to the myriad of proprietary solutions available for use, the digital coupon – and by extension the mobile coupon market – is highly fragmented.
A lack of consistency makes it difficult for merchants and brands to cost effectively distribute and accept digital coupons on a large scale. With no interoperable solution between merchants, coupon clearing houses, point of sale suppliers, brands, app developers, distributors and mobile operators, the mobile engagement market is ultimately being prevented from fulfilling its potential.
Digital couponing still holds the potential to deliver a number of considerable benefits to the retailer and brands
- Less likely to be lost or forgotten
- More likely to be redeemed
- Much easier to target specific consumers
- More timely and accurate collection of customer data
- Real time flexible campaign control
- Reduce coupon fraud
- Elimination of distribution costs
- Faster and more accurate validation and redemption
- Quicker settlement process
This is why GS1 UK and the GSMA have produced a joint white paper, detailing how to leverage the technologies and business processes already adopted by brands and merchants, as well as existing standards used within the supply chain.
The framework described in this paper provides a practical way for brands and merchants to use the mobile channel to distribute and accept digital coupons across an entire market, reaching both their existing customer base and potentially expanding to a much wider audience than is possible using current methods. Not only that, but the framework provides consumers and store staff with a consistent experience whilst redeeming coupons at the checkout across multiple merchants and brands. The proposed framework and related processes are also designed to minimise the disruption to the existing coupon ecosystem.