Since Tower Systems launched discount vouchers in its newsagency software in February 2013, they have lead in the loyalty stakes, helping to drive terrific sales for newsagents.
I hear stories regularly of how shoppers have behaved on receiving a voucher, often looking around the shop for something else to purchase. The bigger the discount offered the more engaged them become in my experience.
The $11.18 discount offered on the voucher above will typically have no real cost to the business since the business has settings options with which to encourage shoppers to spend more than they might have usually spent. This is what a good loyalty program is about – encouraging shoppers to be more loyal than traditionally.
Discount vouchers are perfect for the times in which we find ourselves today: offering a cash discount off their next purchase captures the mind of and budget-conscious shopper.
Another thing to love about discount vouchers is that they are owned and run by the store, thereby helping to drive overall store performance. This is better for the local business than a specific supplier funded loyalty program that only seeks to drive sales of products from that supplier. That type of loyalty tends to be of lesser value to the local store.
The best loyalty program is one that lifts the overall business performance, rather than merely shifting sales between suppliers.
Points based loyalty programs have been ruined by supermarket behaviour. Most customers would not know the dollar value of a point if asked I suspect. My thinking is the value of points is the inverse of the money spent by a retailer promoting their points. Noisy points program marketing = lesser value for consumers.
Looking at shopper basket data from plenty of newsagencies where discount vouchers from the Tower Systems newsagency software has been used I can see that magazines continue to benefit – the magazine department accrues the least value in voucher dollars yet it benefits the most from purchases made with a voucher as part payment. There are some departments, however, where vouchers accrued and redeemed tend to match, demonstrating terrific efficiency.
If you are one of the 1800+ newsagents with the Tower Systems newsagency software and you’re not using discount vouchers, check them out, they could deliver a terrific bottom line performance boost.