If you have ever been involved in loyalty programs, I have some really exciting news for you. If you, like me, have never participated in any such programs, well, this might interest you too, so please read on.
Loyalty programs on the blockchain
Ever since bitcoin was created, thousands of tech companies have been started which all want to somehow disrupt all kinds of industries using blockchain technology. The word blockchain has become a magic word for almost any entity be it a startup Fintech company or some government agency. Today we will explore a startup that wants to apply the blockchain technology in the loyalty program industry.
Introducing Qiibee
Qiibee is a company based in Europe that wants to put loyalty programs on the blockchain. Qiibee has been working with over 900 brands since 2015 and they have been doing this off-chain. Their aim: "to help brands run their loyalty programs on the blockchain." Loyalty programs have been around for decades and the industry is ever growing as brands compete to keep customers coming back to them. Loyalty programs help brands get repeat business as customers keep coming back to collect more points or tokens to get some freebies/rewards.
Though in theory it seems like a perfect model, offer your loyal customers some rewards and you have happy customers that will always come back and bring others along. However, the industry is far from perfect. A study conducted by Fruend in 2017 revealed that approximately $100 billion worth of loyalty points is left unredeemed. Reasons are many but among them are the fact that points can only be redeemed at the particular brand that they were accumulated. Some customers are not really attached to certain brand but would go there once in a while and in doing so collect some points but never enough to redeem for anything worthwhile. The result, well, billions of unredeemed points.
Problems:
- Setting up a loyalty program is costly for companies
- There are low levels of engagement
- There are inherent risks like risks of data breach since companies have to store large amount of personal data of their customers, the have a huge responsibility to keep that data secure.
- The market is highly fragmented and this makes customers reluctant to sign up for such programs
- Usually tokens cannot be redeemed for cash and are not transferable. This means the points hold no value outside of the particular brand
Solutions
Qiibee has been in the loyalty market since 2015 and has come up with solutions to the problems mentioned above. They have gained lot's of experience and have partnered with over 900 brands having hudreds of thousands of users of their off-chain app. They now bring all the experience and partnerships on to the blockchain.
The Qiibee solution offers a plug and play service for brands to create their own loyalty program and in thus have greatly reduced the risks and costs that are usually associated with the traditional loyalty programs.
- Qiibee makes it very easy for brands to engage with their loyal customers through their app's interface and have full control of how they want their loyal customers will be rewarded.
- Since customer want value, the brand can take advantage of the period the customers hold the tokens in anticipation of the value mooning, to engage with the customer. They also can reach a wider audience that is presented by the Qiibee ecosystem
- Because the tokens already have value, the "tokens will not be accounted for a deferred value."
- The risks of data breach is higly reduced for the brand since the control of the wallet is with the customer themselves.
The customer will enjoy the following benefits, meaning full freedom for them:
- They can have an overview of all the tokens from different programs all in one qiibee platform
- They can trade their tokens with other customers and be able to benefit from different "brand redemption offers. "
- The tokens have value outside of the brand they are originally associated with since they are crypto currencies backed by the qiibee tokens.
- Customers can redeem their tokens for cash.
Roadmap:
Please watch the video I made for more information.