iPoints online coalition acquired by French loyalty firm

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By: Wise Marketer Staff |

Posted on July 20, 2006

iPoints online coalition acquired by French loyalty firm

The UK-based online coalition loyalty programme, iPoints, has been acquired by the French online loyalty operator, Maximiles. The deal was aimed at combining the business interests of iPoints.co.uk and the Maximiles.com loyalty portal.

Both companies (iPoints Ltd and Maximiles) run coalition loyalty schemes in conjunction with major e-commerce loyalty partners, giving members the opportunity to collect reward points from partner websites, which they can redeem for a variety of rewards from an online catalogue.

Apart from the obvious customer loyalty programmes, the similarities between the two companies are striking. Both are involved in providing permission-based email and postal marketing services, with large, highly-targeted consumer databases. Both also operate online white label loyalty and motivation schemes for a number of leading businesses in Europe and the UK.

According to Geraldine Tosh, managing director for iPoints Ltd, "We are seeing increasing demand from clients to deliver pan-European strategies and capabilities across e-commerce, direct marketing and research sectors, so this move creates the perfect platform with which to deliver, providing great opportunities for companies working across Europe."

The acquisition is being made for an undisclosed sum.

Growth period The acquisition comes at the end of a prosperous financial year for iPoints, which grew by 34% year-on-year as a result of a number of major new loyalty partners joining the scheme (i.e. ChoicesUK.com, Moonpig.com, Petplanet.co.uk, Greenfingers.com, Bunches.co.uk and Webfetch.com).

Maximiles has also seen significant growth since its public flotation in Paris last year. Its retail loyalty partners include many major French organisations, including railway company voyages-sncf.com. Maximiles also operates Maximail, an opted-in list of members who are happy to receive communications from third parties. Maximiles Services provides white label online loyalty solutions for businesses including banking firms CIC and Banque Populaire, and French cinema network UGC.

According to Marc Bidou, chairman and CEO for Maximiles, the combined customer database of iPoints.co.uk and Maximiles.com accounts for some 2.5 million members, and the e-commerce partners total 80 when combined. Interestingly, iPoints and Maximiles already have a number of common partners including Promod.com and Mypixmania.com.

For additional information: ·  Visit iPoints at http://www.ipoints.co.uk ·  Visit Maximiles at http://www.maximiles.com