Case studies / Retail
Case studyA loyalty app for a retail chain
A retail chain whose customers were anonymous at checkout launched a loyalty app with accounts, offers and a wallet, identifying more customers and making offers measurable.
Overview
A national chain of health, beauty and pharmacy-adjacent stores in Southern Europe, with high-street and shopping-centre branches and a modest online shop.
Scale. About 400,000 customers, many shopping weekly, across a national network of around 150 stores with busy tills at peak times.
The challenge
The chain knew its stores were busy and its customers loyal, but it knew almost nothing about who those customers were. Most paid by card or cash and left without a trace beyond a basket of products.
Customers were anonymous at checkout. Marketing could not tell whether a promotion had brought people back or simply discounted purchases they would have made anyway, and it could not target offers to the customers most likely to respond.
An old plastic loyalty card existed but was little used. Customers forgot it, cashiers rarely asked for it and the points scheme was too complicated to explain at a busy till.
Offers were broad and expensive. Without customer data, the chain relied on store-wide discounts and printed leaflets that were hard to measure.
Competitors had launched apps, and customers were beginning to ask why the chain did not have one.
Any new scheme had to work at the till. Queues at peak times were already long, and store managers were clear that anything that slowed checkout would be resisted.
The solution
Customers create an account in the app in a minute or two and receive a digital membership card. Points are earned on every qualifying purchase and can be spent as vouchers at the till or online.
Personalised offers are selected from the CRM based on what each customer buys, and appear in the app ready to use. Customers activate offers with one tap, and they are applied automatically at the till.
The wallet holds the membership card, active offers and vouchers in one place, so a single scan at the till identifies the customer, applies offers and records points. Customers can also pay through the app.
A store locator shows nearby stores, opening hours and services, and messaging sends notifications about new offers and expiring points, respecting each customer's preferences.
Analytics combine app and till data, showing members identified at checkout, offer redemption and the effect of each offer on repeat purchases compared with similar customers who did not receive it.
Customers who prefer not to use the app can still join by giving a phone number at the till, and their points appear in the app if they download it later. Existing plastic card balances were transferred so that long-standing customers lost nothing.
The engagement
- Seven months
- Six specialists
- Loyalty rules and offer design, design and build of a mobile app with accounts, loyalty, offers, wallet and store locator, integration with point of sale, CRM, payments, messaging and analytics, till routines and training, a pilot in selected stores and national launch.
Integrations
- Point of sale
- CRM
- Payments
- Messaging
- Analytics
How we delivered it
- 01
Define loyalty rules
Five weeks
We worked with marketing, finance and store operations to define simple loyalty rules: how points are earned and spent, how offers work and what happens at the till. Cashiers and store managers reviewed every rule.
- 02
Build the app
Fourteen weeks
We built the app with accounts, loyalty, personalised offers, a digital wallet and a store locator, and integrated it with point of sale, CRM, payments and messaging.
- 03
Pilot in selected stores
Six weeks
Selected stores of different sizes and locations piloted the app. We refined the till routine, the sign-up flow and the first offers based on what cashiers and customers told us.
- 04
Launch nationally
Five weeks
The app launched nationally in waves, with in-store promotion, cashier training and a welcome offer for new members.
Results
- More customers identified at checkout
- Increased repeat purchases among members
- Every offer measured against a control group
- No increase in checkout times
More customers are identified at checkout. Members scan their app at the till, and a growing share of transactions are linked to a known customer.
Repeat purchases have increased among app members. Personalised offers and points bring customers back more often, and members visit more frequently than before they joined.
Offers are measurable. Marketing can see the effect of each offer on repeat purchases and has moved budget away from broad discounts towards targeted offers that perform better.
Cashiers needed simple routines at the till. A single scan does everything, cashiers ask one short question and checkout times did not increase, which kept store teams on side.
The printed leaflet programme has been reduced, and the chain now has a direct channel to its most loyal customers.
Store teams now see sign-ups and member transactions by store, and friendly competition between branches has helped the scheme grow without heavy advertising.
We asked our cashiers what they could manage on a Saturday afternoon and built the routine around that. One question, one scan.
What made the difference
Cashiers needed simple routines at the till.
