The pandemic has caused a dramatic decline of footfall in UK shopping districts. Throughout the country, retailers have been adjusting to rapid changes in consumer behaviour. Many of these adjustments have been in the form of introducing new business measures – such as new online shops, click and collect, or delivery services – but footfall has still remained low.
With lockdowns easing and businesses reopening, retailers are looking for ways to earn back some of their losses and improve footfall rates again. One avenue of success that many business owners have seen is the implementation of a town loyalty card scheme, implemented by their local councils and backed by UK government high street funds.
Improving High Streets and Town Centres
All retailers know that customer loyalty is a crucial factor when it comes to making a success of your business, and for good reason. According to an Altfeld Inc. study, the probability of selling something to an existing customer is between 60 and 70% – a statistic that shrinks to between 5 and 20% when selling to a prospective customer.
Loyalty programs allow businesses to reward their customers for shopping with them over their competitors. Not only does this form an emotional connection between the brand and the customer (as the customer feels as though their efforts have been seen), but it also encourages customers to return to spend the points they’ve collected.
With the UK government providing funding for local councils to make improvements to shopping and retail districts, regional loyalty schemes are a popular all-in-one solution.
Having a customer loyalty scheme that covers an entire district prompts consumers to hold loyalty for the area the program covers. It also means that consumer spend is going to stay within that area, instead of people visiting shops that are out of town.
Each participating retailer has its own unique loyalty scheme with adjustable elements, including how points are collected and the rewards that points can be redeemed for. Retailers can also use the system to collect valuable data on their customers. These attributes can be fully customised, so you can choose to collect the information that is important to you.
With the built-in marketing platform, you can use this data to create intelligent and customised email campaigns to your customers. Email marketing is a key tool for small businesses, with 80% of them believing that most of their customer retention comes from email marketing campaigns.
And it’s not just retailers that find email marketing important – 59% of customers say marketing emails from their favourite retailers influence most of their purchase decisions.
Having a digital solution like the Community Card in your area also helps to future-proof high streets, meaning you can interact with and encourage younger generations to continue to build the future of the high street.
With loyalty and marketing platforms, the Community Card also offers additional extras that can help to boost revenue, such as physical gift cards, electronic gift cards, or e-commerce integrations for their existing online website. Our team will gladly handle each retailer’s individual requirements to ensure they get the best results from the Community Card. This will not impact any of the existing council funding.
For more information on how the Community Card can benefit your area, please get in touch with one of our experts today.
