iPoints coalition scheme signs five new retail partners
UK-based online loyalty programme, ipoints, has signed up five major new partners to its scheme. Partners include top names in the UK High Street.
The new partners are online CD e-tailer 101cd.com; online florist bunches.co.uk; gift site Prezzybox.com; books e-tailer countrybookshop.co.uk; and Jewellery e-tailer jewellery.tv.
Through ipoints, customers of the new partners can earn ipoints for every £1 (US$1.80) they spend and can multi-collect with other partners represented on the ipoints.co.uk website. They can then exchange these ipoints for a variety of free gifts from CDs and books, to free flights and holidays, skydiving, cameras and Ipods.
Baskets 60% bigger Typically, ipoints partners see up to a 60% increase in basket size amongst ipoints collectors compared to non-participants, plus a 40% increase in frequency of purchase from existing customers.
According to Jon Willians, Marketing Director at jewellery.tv, the company looked at a number of different options for developing a loyalty programme for its customers before choosing ipoints on the basis of its proven track record of providing a flexible loyalty programme that delivers, and which could be integrated easily into jewellery.tv's web platform.
Partners iPoints was set up over five years ago and now has more than 900,000 members. It has over 60 members and affiliates who use the programme to build customer loyalty and deliver incremental revenue. Many of the UK High Street's top names are partners, including John Lewis.com, Boots, Currys, Domino's Pizza, Mothercare, Woolworths, ChoicesDirect.com and Burton.co.uk. Multi-faceted iPoint's business components include:
- Partners across a broad spectrum of purchase categories (who have exclusivity in their sector) who use ipoints to both acquire customers and then develop an ongoing relationship with them through rewards,
- Rewards for shoppers of affiliate companies who are reached via the ipoints website,
- A database of over 900,000 active online customers (complemented by offline data in many cases) which it actively provides for list rental for direct marketing purpose
- Through online polling, ipoints can collect data on behalf of clients to build their databases, or provide consumer research,
- Staff incentive and motivation programmes
- Trade incentive programmes,
- A credit card which makes it possible for consumer members to gain points with any purchase, on or offline,
- iPonts is also an ISP, ipointsnet.co.uk, through which members can earn ipoints as they browse.
,
How it works Membership is free for anyone who is resident in the UK with internet access and an email address. Ipoints are added to customer accounts when ipoints have received confirmation of a purchase from the partner concerned. To guard against misuse members can only spend their ipoints when the transaction between member and partner has been completed and a waiting period of between 3 and 21 days has expired.
To redeem, members select a product from ipoint's online reward catalogue and enter their account details. The system checks whether the member has enough ipoints to purchase the item, and asks for confirmation of the delivery address. The reward ipoints are then deducted from the member's account. The reward is received within two working weeks.
More Info: