South African mall offers incentives to shop
Nearly 100 South African retailers at Cape Town's large-scale Canal Walk shopping centre are taking advantage of a new collaborative customer incentive programme, Incenta. From 16 million shoppers each year, the programme aims to identify loyal customers, increase the frequency and duration of their visits, and increase their spend levels.
The Incenta programme involves nearly 100 retail outlets and aims to enlist 90% of the centre's 400 stores within the first year, including its marquee tenants. It is based on a debit membership card, with shoppers accumulating i-cash bonus rewards based on their purchases at participating shops.
In addition to the i-cash purchase incentives, the programme is to accumulate information about the purchasing histories and habits of the 16 million shoppers who visit the centre every year. Canal Walk retail tenants can then use accurate, detailed profiles of regular shoppers to formulate well targeted special offers and promotions. These promotions can include SMS text messages to mobile telephones as shoppers enter the shopping centre.
New concept "The Incenta program is an entirely new concept for the South African retail market," said John Biesman-Simons, financial director for Canal Walk. "What makes it compelling is that shoppers can immediately see their programme rewards, and redeem them at any participating retailer from the seventh day of the following month."
The customer incentive and loyalty programme integrates the Advantage, CleverPath, eTrust and AllFusion technologies from Computer Associates (CA), and Canal Walk claims to be the first shopping complex in Africa to launch a customer relationship management (CRM) initiative on this scale.
Background CA Services supported the development of the system with five full-time consultants and other experts. Alan West, CEO of Velociti Solutions, the CA integration partner responsible for developing the system, commented: "It's a powerful programme underpinned by proven direct marketing principles and customer relationship management components."
The Canal Walk shopping centre is on the outskirts of Cape Town, and was completed at a cost of R1.4 billion (US$138.4 million) in October 2000.
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