Pay By Touch launches loyalty & gift card kiosk
Pay By Touch has launched its latest innovation: a self-service Reward and Gift Card Kiosk. The new kiosks enable consumers to design, print and purchase their own personalised gift cards, as well as sign up for loyalty cards in-store, without assistance from store staff.
The internet-enabled retail kiosk allows customers to make up their own store-branded and third-party branded gift cards with personalised names, along with a choice of colour graphic images. Because the kiosk can store an almost unlimited number of graphic images, multiple merchants and brands can be supported through a single kiosk.
Buying gift cards The gift cards are purchased and dispensed directly from the kiosk, so gift card buyers don't need to wait at the check-out or customer service desk. Using the touch-sensitive screen, the customer chooses the card design that best matches the gift-giving occasion, and then chooses the amount to be given. The customer then types in both the recipient's name and the gift giver's name, and inserts a credit card to make payment. When the payment is authorised, a personalised, activated gift card is printed and dispensed along with a receipt.
According to Jeff Grider, vice president for Pay By Touch's personalised marketing division, "Since the cards are printed in the kiosk for each individual order, merchants no longer have to struggle with guessing the correct numbers of specialty gift cards to pre-order."
Loyalty programme enrolment If the retailer has a customer loyalty programme, they can also choose to expand the kiosk to include Rapid Enroll, Pay By Touch's automated loyalty programme sign-up and card-issuing service.
When Rapid Enroll is added to the kiosk, customers signing up for the retailer's loyalty programme can produce their own ready-to-use loyalty card without filling in application forms or visiting the store's customer service desk.
The kiosk is currently being piloted by Syracuse, New York-based grocery store, Green Hills Market (which is operated by customer loyalty expert Gary Hawkins). According to Hawkins, proprietor of Green Hills Market and CEO of Hawkins Strategic, "Shoppers enjoy being able to add a friend's name as well as their own to each gift card. It brings warmth and personality back into the process."
More kiosk activity At the same time, Pay By Touch reported that its loyalty kiosk technology has been adopted by supermarket cooperative Foodtown, which has launched a personalised savings service in three of its stores, based on its loyalty programme. The Foodtown Personalised Savings service provides Foodtown Club Card members with customised discounts on the products they buy the most.
Launched earlier this year, the service offers discounts based on shoppers' known preferences and established buying habits in a particular store. Shoppers simply swipe their loyalty card at a kiosk as they enter the store, and receive a page of personalised offers. They can then swipe their loyalty card again at the check-out to automatically redeem any offers they have taken advantage of. The service's targeting engine learns from each shopping trip and generates a new set of personalised offers and rewards for each shopper every week.
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