Unmanned and automated retail, that is not our future, it’s our present. The upsurge of self-checkout is allowing a quick and easy ‘just walk out’ experience that many find fascinating. However, as an increasing number of shoppers leave the store without any interaction with a cashier, we are left wondering how does this impact our clients - high-frequency retailers. At the same time, it challenges us how we, as leaders in campaign-based loyalty, make sure we generate the same or more impact with our loyalty campaigns. Our moonshot was to create a way to distribute stamps and flatpack even if the shoppers opt for a self-service checkout.
In any industry, as it develops, grows, changes, and evolves, the natural progression is what continues to make an agile company successful. Challenging ourselves to look for solutions is what makes us innovate and adapt quickly.
As the number of automated stores continues to rise and disrupt the industry, the shift in power moves more towards the shopper. It’s therefore up to us to innovate to make sure shoppers are aware, excited, inspired and ready to participate in our loyalty programs. Losing the valuable interaction with cashiers in the shopper journey in-store, creates a potential threat to the awareness of the running loyalty program. Research shows, that POS materials and store staff are responsible for 70% of the awareness of the program. Without the simple question ‘do you collect stamps?’ – the program could have significantly less impact. So, the question remains: How do we get our stamps or flow packs to shoppers when there is no cashier?
Even in a world where online solutions seem to be at their peak – integration of loyalty programs digitally can be challenging. We aspire to make our programs smooth sailing for our clients, and therefore our set-up and preparation of digital solutions should also require minimum integration to their software. And that is a big challenge. We understand that for retailers, the perfect solution requires no POS integration. By using this knowledge, we have created our solution.
What if... we would have a device that can distribute both digital and physical stamps?
What if... our solution required no integration to the retailer's POS system?
What if... our solution could be cost effective?
What if... we were able to bring it to the market within 12 months?
A shopper inserts their purchase ticket into the device, it comes out together with the correct number of stamps.
Standi makes a hundred pictures of the receipt, all of those snippets are put together in the cloud. It is then automatically checked for inconsistencies and irregularities which could be a sign of fraud. The device checks the logo to determine if it’s the correct retailer, whether the VAT number corresponds with the total amount spent, number of SKUs purchased, and many more. Every detail of the shopper's receipt is carefully examined. The algorithm determines a confidence level, and if the device accepts the receipt as correct, a unique fingerprint is generated in the cloud based on key features of the receipt and its content. The retailer can therefore prevent the receipt from being used again. The purchase ticket is returned along with the earnt stamps.
We are proud to announce, that within 2 years after the global launch, the Dutch Patent Office (DPO) has granted BrandLoyalty a patent that covers a ‘dispensing device and method for automatically dispensing collectibles’. Therefore, Standi is officially patented!
The launch of Standi has been combined with the opening of a brand new DekaMarkt store in Heemstede, the Netherlands. A completely stand-alone solution, allowing the shopper to redeem their stamps and participate in our programs.
Starting as a loyalty stamp dispenser, a new version of Standi has been launched recently to hand out instant loyalty rewards (cards, stickers, patches, etc.). This version of Standi solves a major issue of retailers: no matter how shoppers decide to check-out (using the retailers’ app, self-scan check-outs or manned check-outs), they can retrieve the correct amount of instant loyalty rewards without any intervention needed by store staff. Retrieving the instant loyalty rewards (or stamps for that matter) is as simple as scanning the receipt or using the digital ticket in the retailer’s app. All of this can be recognized and processed by Standi without having to integrate into the retailers’ IT environment!
In case the retailer’s app is used, dispatching the instant rewards is extremely fast, as Standi no longer needs to check for validity of the ticket and potential fraud issues. Although the process with a physical ticket takes a few seconds, our real-life test and pilot showed that shoppers don’t consider this as too long. With the retailer’s app, Standi does remain to hash each (digital) ticket to avoid the same ticket being used twice. No compromise on the fraud prevention!
Are you ready to replace your 'mystery shoppers' with on-the-spot digital intelligence and have a substantial increase in program participation? Meet your loyal companion for in-store execution - StorePal.
Go to articleAfter successfully launching our global innovation at DekaMarkt, Standi has now travelled across the borders to the retail giant of France - Carrefour. Discover Standi’s exciting new features!
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