UAE retailers work to make loyalty pay off
Landmark Group firms up its first co-branding programme with StanChart and MasterCard
Dubai: Nothing works better than loyalty when retail industry sentiments turn difficult and shoppers turn reticent about buying. Top up those points and rewards on loyalty programmes and get consumers back into the habit of spending quality time at local malls and their many outlets.
The Landmark Group has just topped up the scale of its in-house loyalty offering, ‘Shukran’, going in for a co-branding credit card arrangement with Standard Chartered and MasterCard. Initially, the scope of the offering only extends to the retail group’s 3.2 million Shukran subscribers — and network of 400 stores — in the UAE. This could soon be extended to some of the other Gulf markets where Landmark has extensive retail exposure, either with the same co-branding partners or through tie-ins with others, according to a top official.
“Rather than the 15 days to a month that it used to take us for the points to be added to a Shukran subscriber’s card in the past, the co-branding venture offers instant points that can be redeemed,” said Vipin Sethi, CEO of Landmark Group. “The way we see it is that our loyalty cardholders get to ‘earn and burn’ their loyalty points immediately.
“It’s a way of rewarding loyalty a little better ... and faster. Cardholders get to have value straight away from their transactions.
“The co-branding is a first for us, though we have been thinking about such an arrangement for a long time. There are other ways that the loyalty offering can work for us ... for instance, if StanChart starts awarding Shukran points on transactions done elsewhere.”
Landmark’s Shukran database has turned into something substantial — there are 10 million subscribers overall, and last year 15 million transactions were conducted using the loyalty scheme. Also, last year its scope was widened to cover the operations in Egypt, taking the country tally to eight.
There is quite a bit of activity taking place in the local retail sector through co-branding exercises. Kalyan Jewellers entered one with RAKBank whereby cardholders could redeem points won towards gold jewellery buys.
And cutting-edge technology too is helping retailers’ push to get a lock on loyalty. This is where the ‘big data’ concept is particularly handy, whereby complex algorithms can be used to glean a better understanding of consumer preferences and which retailers — or anyone in a customer facing industry — can use to their advantage.
“You should look first at what today’s shopper expects: he or she is increasingly relying on social networks, (is) mobile-driven and has a huge reliance on cloud-based end-user applications,” said Frederick Sabty, Vice-President for Hospitality at Avaya. “Unless retailers are ahead of that shopper and unless they can deliver an omni-channel retailing experience, it is increasingly difficult to capture shoppers’ interest and retain loyalty.
“The answer to all this lies in how retailers leverage the large pool of data they capture, whether through loyalty cards, online shopping experiences, in-mall browsing and shopping habits, etc. These capabilities do not lie only with the retail brand but also, with the malls that today are increasingly delivering the right platform, technology and capabilities for smart shopping experiences.
“To capture and maintain that loyalty, mall operators are required today to deliver the technology capability that brings a unique shopping experience to every single shopper in terms of extended shopper services, walk-with-me concierge, click-to-call via interactive mall kiosks, point-to-point marketing and language customisation to name a few.”
And is big data starting to find traction in this region? “We are getting there ... We are working with a number of mall operators to deliver this transformation. In fact, this transformation is becoming a key differentiator to the region’s operators.”
