Member Article

Retailers urged to collaborate on digital promotions

Results posted by online fashion retailer Boohoo, which has provided further evidence that online retailers have been outperforming their high street fashion rivals, shows the importance of retailers of all sizes working together to develop local promotional strategies to bring shoppers back into town centres.

Rewarding Visits, a UK technology provider, whose platform is already being used by BIDs (Business Improvement Districts) and town centre management teams, as well as large and small retailers to digitise conventional high streets, says it is in the interests of both chain and independent retailers to work together to attract and retain customers. The platform enables retailers to post their own promotional offers, which consumers can redeem as paper vouchers from interactive screens strategically placed in retail and public locations or via a free-to-download mobile app. Retailers, in turn, can access valuable data on consumers that have interacted with their offers both for ongoing marketing and additional promotional opportunities.

Boohoo, which targets young fashion buyers, posted a 31% increase in sales in the UK to £65 million over the four months to December 31. This performance comes at a time when online sales across the entire retail sector have been outpacing in-store performance. According to a report from accountancy firm BDO online sales grew 18% last year and have grown by 27% over the past two years, at a time when bricks and mortar sales have fallen over both periods.

Guy Chatburn, Director, Rewarding Visits, says:

“The challenge facing town centres around the country and the retailers that occupy them is how to meet the challenge from online and create their own form of digital high street in their own location. We know that shoppers want to support their local high streets, that they like being able to access special deals from multiple local retailers, both planned in advance of a visit but increasingly as a spontaneous decision when they arrive, and they like to feel that in so doing they are supporting their local town and its economy.”

The company’s platform and interactive touchscreens can be used to run bespoke town, mall, multi-site retailer schemes offering promotions and deals to customers, all of which can be branded according to the town, locality or retailer. Following the success of its first scheme in Sutton Coldfield, the company is currently working Mansfield BID and Marketing Gloucester on similar locally-branded town centre schemes to be rolled out over the next two months. The cost-effective, rental nature of the scheme also allows it to be delivered well below figures that would otherwise required capital expenditure investment.

Ends.

About Rewarding Visits

Rewarding Visits is a UK technology provider, whose platform supports the development of the digital high street. The platform can be white labeled for any town, mall, locality or individual retailer, delivering data-led insights through paper, web and app-based vouchers, enabling targeted promotions, communications and customer relationship management. Each platform can be controlled directly by BID teams, town centre or mall managers as well as the retailers themselves.

For more information, please visit www.rewardingvisits.com/business

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Howard Robinson .