Alice runs a small independent business producing handmade candles, wax melts, bath products and body care items. Her products are sold through Etsy, her own website and regular market stalls.
While Etsy helped launch the business, Alice wanted greater control over branding, customer relationships and repeat sales. As she prepared to launch her own website, one of her priorities was introducing loyalty rewards and gift cards to encourage returning customers and word of mouth introductions.
Alice wanted customers to earn loyalty points when purchasing online and when buying from her market stall. She also wanted to see gift cards. In addition to unwanted transaction fees, Etsy does not provide any support for loyalty rewards or gift cards. Hence the move to a custom online retail solution.
Alice's choices were limited...
Large retailers often run loyalty programmes that work across websites and physical stores. However these systems usually rely on custom back-end software, point-of-sale integrations and dedicated hardware, placing them far beyond the reach of a small independent business.
Gift cards from providers such as SumUp or Square were affordable, but they are typically tied to a specific retaiiler and payment platform or POS system, making them difficult to use at a market stall or custom website.
Physical gifts cards that act as VISA or Mastercards are even more expensive and not feasible for a small boutique retailer. Costs only make these suitable for large national retailers.
Smartix Loyalty Cards were integtrated into her custom retail website checkout flow in less than a day. Gift Cards could be purchased in various amounts and also integrated into the checkout flow. Alice was also able to use Smartix Scan to process both card types ar her market stall.
At checkout, the website back-end simply makes an API call to Smartix to add points to the customer's balance. Or, if the customer does not yet have a lotalty card, another API call creates one for the customer.
A similar API call decrements points from the customer's balance. The points balance is updated in the Loyalty Card within moments.
During checkout, a API call creates a new gift card with the required balance.
At checkout, the customer enters their gift card number and an API call to Smartix decrements the balance. The new balance is pushed to the customer's gift card a few moments later.
Smartix Scan handles both Loyalty Cards and Gift Cards in a single App. Allowing adjustnment of points / balance, view of transaction history and a complete audit trail of transactons.
Once customers had installed their loyalty cards, Alice discovered that the wallet pass could do much more than track points.
She now uses the pass to keep customers informed and engaged.
Because Alice knows many of her customers personally, she often sends targeted updates instead of mass marketing.
Customers who previously bought bath products might receive news about new bath scents, while others receive updates that match their preferences.
This allows Alice to maintain personal relationships with her customers at scale.
Alice's Loyalty and Gift Cards now for a personalised communicatons channel through which she can engage directly with her customers.
Alice can target customer who may not have purchased for a while.
Alice's local customers now have her market dates handy and know exactly when they will find her at their local market.
Alice is also investigating personalised links so she can track which products each customer click on enabling her further improve her bespoke offerings.
Our Managed Pass options offer solutions that are affordable by the smallest of businesses.
