Savings Card lessons from Debenhams
Thursday, 31 March 2011
Giving customers a craving for saving
Imagine being able to guarantee that a customer does their Christmas shopping in your store...... Well Debenhams are endeavouring to make that dream a reality with their Christmas Savings Card 2011. If they can do it so can you!
No matter how big or small your company is, by using your prepaid card programme you can do that quickly and easily.
Each time the customer wants to add to their 'account', they simply pay you the amount and you swipe their card, topping it up by that amount.
It’s so simple that at Card Commerce we believe it’s a no-brainer. You have nothing to lose by giving it a shot and remember it’s a great service for customers who want to spread out the cost of big occasions and an easy way for you to manage what is effectively a “savings club”. There is surely no easier way for you to guarantee customer spend in advance.
Incentivising
Debenhams are even incentivising their Christmas Savings Card 2011 to boost customer uptake. They are offering a bonus load for a variety of different savings thresholds on a certain date and then leaving a period of a fortnight in which any redemption of “savings” forfeits the bonus load.
You could incentivise your scheme by offering a bonus load relative to the amount already loaded on the card by a certain date. By getting saver’s to register their details with you in case their card is lost or stolen, you can even build your customer database.
Merchandising
You can find Debenhams’ Christmas Savings Cards 2011 at the tills and in lots of locations throughout the store. Make sure you merchandise your cards at every opportunity.
As there is no value on your “savings cards” until they are loaded, there's no point keeping them in the till. You should merchandise them like every other product you offer. Spread them around your store as much as possible - the more your customers see them the more they are likely to partake in your “savings club”!
Advertising
OK so you may not have an advertising budget like Debenhams but you should still strive to ensure your customers know you offer a “savings card”. How else will they be able to partake in your “savings club”? And we're not talking about national TV and print media campaigns! A simple poster in your shop window will draw a certain amount of attention as will flyers or an advert in your local newspaper. Or why not print up a flyer (print is super-cheap at the moment) and get a staff member or two to hand them out outside your shop during quiet periods?
Online
Debenhams offer customers the option of topping up, checking or redeeming their balance online.
If you already have an online offering that has a self-managed integrated online payment capability you can too, just give us a call to find out how. Our online prepaid solution allows you to offer cardholders the option to purchase, top-up and redeem prepaid cards on your website.
Using your prepaid cards as a savings card offers you a real opportunity to guarantee customer sales in the lead up to Christmas or your customer’s big occasions (a “savings card” like a gift card is not just for Christmas), as well as increasing your average “float” (the period of time between a customer loading a card and redeeming its value). You can either order new cards with a “savings card” façade, or even just use your existing cards. It doesn’t matter whether you incentivise your “savings club” or not, remember it’s a customer utility, it’s there to make their life easier. So what are you waiting for? That’s “savings cards”. Made Easy.
