Target to use mobile barcodes for customer loyalty rewards
One of the big problems with mobile barcodes is that most of them need special scanning equipment. Cameraphones can install scanning software, but for large retailers the problem is bigger - they need to install special readers at point-of-sale in all of their stores. Massive retailer Target has announced that it will be making this step, and is installing thousands of mobile barcode scanners at locations all over America.
What’s this now?
American has a long history of robust customer loyalty plans. Many of them are based around loyalty cards that can be scanned and updated at the checkout in the stores - the problem is that since every retailer has their own loyalty card, you can’t possibly fit them all in your wallet.
Target has decided that mobile barcodes are the best way to solve this problem.
How does it work?
You can now update your Target GiftCard via your mobile phone. You still need to have a GiftCard, but you can leave it at home. You just point your mobile browser at the Target mobile site, and it will display a mobile barcode that is linked to your card. By scanning that barcode at the point-of-sale, your loyalty points are automatically updated.
Steve Eastman, President of Target.com says “the addition of Mobile GiftCards to our suite of mobile shopping solutions further simplifies the Target experience for our guests. Consistent with our ‘Expect More. Pay Less.’ brand promise, we will continue to surprise and delight our guests with innovative and highly relevant mobile capabilities, enabling access to the Target experience anytime and anywhere.”
What we think?
The really important thing about this story is that Target now has advanced scanners installed at all of its point-of-sale locations! That’s a massive cash and infrastructure investment for any large retailer to make, but now that its done Target can start to implement new services like the Mobile GiftCard. The cost of creating new scanning and barcode based services will be pretty cheap from here on in - and Target will want to make the most of its investment. So I would imagine we can expect to see a lot more things like this from Target. Which is great news all around really - if other big chains see that Target is doing well from mobile barcodes, they are far more likely to create some themselves.
Assuming that Target does well with this, of course.
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Interesting post there Cian.
Reminds me a lot of QR codes. Do you know of any outlets that have trialled QR codes? Interesting to see how this would go; would have thought it to be a cheaper alternative on the outset and wonder what Target thought of them.
Thanks
POS has always been the Achilles Heel of customer loyalty and customer relationship marketing. There is a significant investment to do what Target is doing. Once you have that though the world is your oyster; providing that 1) you provide your customer with a good value proposition; 2) you provide good customer service; 3) you provide timely targeted relevant offers to your customers; 4) don’t screw it up along the way.
I believe that customers want to be marketed to intelligently. That means db marketing, segmentation and advanced personalization, and suggestion engines. Mobile provides now provides the means to do so.