Local Loyalty Rewards Systems that Welcome Back Communities

Various loyalty cards for Wenorth Council

Community loyalty marketing for councils and BIDs

Reward-It has an innovative regional loyalty scheme that rewards customers for supporting businesses and venues in their local town or city.

This app and loyalty card system is ideal for councils planning to boost their local economy through footfall marketing, because the solution doesn’t tie up council resources or tie anyone into long-term contracts. Instead, it provides a local loyalty marketing system that can continue long after Welcome Back Funding dries up, without requiring a budget from local authorities.

The easy-to-use programme sustainably supports local business recovery and growth. It automatically collects data on each retailer’s customer shopping and spending habits, so business owners can optimise their marketing plans while improving sales and stock holding efficiency.

There’s something in our collaborative city or town ‘shop local’ loyalty card system for everyone.

Benefits of Reward-It’s loyalty system for local councils

Long-lasting retail improvements: shop owners can choose to continue with the scheme when government funding ends
Increased use of council-owned cultural and leisure attractions
One solution fits all: the platform allows customisation and scales from temporary stallholders to national retail brands
Information on local footfall patterns, online and offline buying behaviour, and other business intelligence
Measurable results on the impact of local customer loyalty schemes
The ability to periodically run wider local promotions (such as Christmas grottos)
One customer loyalty card which can be used in all participating stores, with branding to support destination marketing
Self-funding and fully resourced: the council does not need to budget for the scheme once government funding has ended and retailers choose to continue
The opportunity for shoppers to use a free app instead of a physical card
The ability for the same local loyalty programme to run across all shopping districts and all retailers within a region
A full package of bespoke services that can be used to support your marketing team or as a fully outsourced marketing service, including graphic design, PR, copywriting and editing, SEO, website creation, social media, promotional merchandise, and event management

Long-lasting retail improvements

Fully customisable

From stall holders to national chains

Easy to use mobile app

Benefits of Reward-It’s local loyalty system for local retailers

Complete control over your own loyalty scheme
Loyalty facilities for market stall holders, independent shops, regional franchises, and national retail household names
Integration with most online stores
Retailers have a choice of how and where loyalty points from their own sales can be redeemed
Automatic customer marketing databases continue growing as each new customer signs up
Built in email marketing tools
Customer behaviour reports available at the touch of a button
Sales support even after government-funded schemes end
A rolling contract that doesn’t require long-term commitment
A free loyalty app, so customers have the choice between a physical card and the app
A range of additional elements to boost shop sales

Government funding, such as the Welcome Back Fund, is allowing many local authorities the chance to market and improve the towns in their jurisdiction, but end dates on the funding means the support is only temporary. With Reward-It’s solution, we offer a seamless and sustainable way for retailers to continue benefitting from the project long after the funding’s end date.

Once the council-run scheme has finished, retailers will have the option to choose whether to continue with their loyalty programmes. Reward-It will offer the loyalty scheme, alongside the opportunity to upgrade to physical gift cards, electronic gift cards, or any e-commerce integration that may suit their business. Customers that were a member of the loyalty scheme will be unaffected, and can continue using their cards like they did before.

Our solution

Our town and city loyalty schemes run on Reward-It’s loyalty platform, which is used by more than 8,000 merchants. It provides automated district-wide reporting for councils and gives individual businesses complete control over their loyalty programmes, whilst being scalable from large chain stores to temporary stalls.

It’s an open-loop system, which offers advantages that traditional loyalty programmes cannot. Consumers can use just one card (or the digital app, if they prefer) to earn loyalty points at all participating outlets, which results in shop managers seeing greater customer participation.

Each business creates an online account that allows you to cover an unlimited number of stores or attractions, and an e-commerce website. The platform will allow each account holder to design their own customer loyalty scheme and any accompanying promotions, and then the retailer can watch their reports of their customers’ buying trends grow as each new shopper signs up.

The council receives an enterprise account and invites local retailers with an account to join, so they can benefit from any wider promotions. However, despite the fact the council retains the ability to get involved with wider regional promotions, there is no need for it to fund or manage the loyalty programmes run by each local business.

For council-owned leisure centres and cultural venues, it’s just as simple. Each venue signs up in the same way as retailers, and the logins remain separate from the council’s overarching enterprise account.

Any retailer that is a member of the customer rewards scheme can expand or adjust their loyalty programme at any time online, without reissuing cards. Shop managers will only see data from their own store, allowing them to track and analyse customer behaviour whilst still retaining privacy.

High street shops involved in town loyalty scheme

TRUSTED BY MORE THAN

SHOP OWNERS WORLDWIDE

WHY DOES IT WORK?

Customer loyalty can have a huge impact on retail businesses, leisure centres, and cultural venues alike. Customer acquisition is 5 times more costly than customer retention, so loyalty schemes are a great retention strategy.

The average UK shopper uses three loyalty cards on a regular basis, and 83% of consumers said they’re more likely to visit – and then continue doing business with – a shop that has a customer loyalty card system in place. Members of loyalty schemes spend between 5% and 20% more than non-members.

Reward-It offers UK based customer service and support teams that are happy to help whenever you may need. Our solutions are currently used by independent retailers, well-known hospitality outlets, and high street brands throughout the UK, all benefiting from our wealth of hands-on retail and e-marketing experiences.

Frequently Asked Questions

What happens when the Welcome Back government funding for local authorities ends?

Some government funding is fixed term, which means it has a specified end date. When the date is reached, each business will have the opportunity to carry on with the existing scheme. Reward-It will offer a subsidised loyalty scheme, along with an upgrade path to physical gift cards, electronic gift cards, or e-commerce integration.

Members of the loyalty scheme will still have the card or app and will still be able to see what each business’ rewards programme is offering.

How does Reward-It’s town cards loyalty solution facilitate all types of businesses?

Reward-It’s town cards loyalty solution allows each retailer to invest as much or as little time to suit the type of business they run, and allows for an entirely independent, customisable loyalty scheme for each retailer.

For example, a butcher will process more transactions per customer per week than a florist would, so the butcher may choose to offer 5 points per £1 spent between Monday and Thursday, whilst the florist may choose to offer a 5% discount when the customer presents their town or council loyalty rewards card.

Can the retailer change the loyalty rewards they offer?

The system is fully customisable, which means the retailer can change any element of their loyalty scheme in real time. They can also set up limited time offers to entice customers to visit again if it has been a while since they’ve used their card. This, in turn, benefits other businesses by increasing footfall to the high street.

Reward-It’s loyalty platform provides a helpful resource library so retailers can teach themselves and find out the information they need.

Can the retailer add other Reward-It solutions?

In our experience, we have found that once retailers have become familiar with Reward-It’s loyalty platform, they naturally look at integrations with additional point of sale, e-commerce, or gift card platforms. We will gladly collaborate with the retailer directly, so it does not require any further council funds.

Is Reward-It’s loyalty solution GDPR compliant?

All Reward-It solutions enable retailers to meet UK GDPR standards. Customers can register anonymously and have full control over their data by amending their preferences online.

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The local authority decides to use government funding to create a town-wide loyalty scheme. Footfall has plummeted since the onslaught of pandemic so councils and retailers alike want to give consumers a reason to return to local high streets.

Local high street retailers sign up to take part in the loyalty scheme. Jeanette, the owner of a small coffee shop, is one of the first to do so.

Jeanette asks the council to send her a bundle of loyalty cards that she can give out to customers and sets up an account on Reward-It’s loyalty platform. She designs and creates a scheme she knows her customers will appreciate and double-checks it with Reward-It’s online Loyalty Scheme Rewards Calculator. After downloading Reward-It’s loyalty app to her in-store mobile device, her loyalty scheme is up and running.

Most of the high street’s retailers follow in Jeannette’s footsteps, and the scheme becomes popular. Customers either have a loyalty card or use the app, and find that it’s easy to register as Jeanette or any other participating store can instantly register member cards using the merchant app.

Customers buy products from participating high street retailers and collect points that they can redeem for rewards.

Participating retailers use Reward-It’s loyalty platform as a helpful marketing tool, sending email campaigns and loyalty rewards to their ready-made database to encourage customers to return.