AI Issue 5 2017

10 Acquisition International - May 2017 “Online shopping is a thriving market. In 2016, global B2C e-commerce sales reached $1.92 trillion USD, and it’s projected to reach nearly $2.5 billion by 2018. 1 Add to that 2.5 billion people using the internet with more than half shopping online. 2 Internet-savvy buyers spend time researching products online and reading online reviews in order to find the best deal possible. The availability of coupons and discounts is one of the main factors that influence internet users to buy items online rather than visit brick-and-mortar stores. The demand for rewards and savings is huge: U.S. consumers hold 3.3 billion memberships in customer loyalty programs, the 2015 COLLOQUY Loyalty Census shows a 26% increase over the number of memberships reported in the last census study in 2013. “According to COLLOQUY’s biennial report from 2015 on the scope of U.S. customer rewards programs, American households hold memberships across 29 loyalty programs. These range from retail, financial services, travel, and various other economic sectors, but only 12 such loyalty programs are active. Many reward programs prove to be less relevant to the consumer or are based on boosting reward percentages temporarily. Over time, these promotional-based incentives have become increasingly less effective in helping companies retain customers and influence their purchasing behavior. The decreased appeal of these rewards deteriorates the value of these programs. Today, the financially savvy shopper is looking for a broader range of rewards, as well as new ways to accelerate their earnings and fulfill their reward qualification easily and simply.” Ominto has certainly crafted a powerful global Cash Back shopping site with attractive Cash Back rebates and shopping incentives. Cash Back is free money for something the consumer is going to do anyway – shop. Consumers want rewards programs that give perks for their established spending patterns. They don’t want to change their purchasing behavior to receive rewards. Michael then goes on to explain what this means in further detail. “To illustrate what this means, only 40% of all rewards in the travel and entertainment category are redeemed. 3 The relevance of the offers and having a broad range of global brands is a critical factor for customers looking to take advantage of a shopping site. Moreover, consumers love loyalty programs: for example, according to the ‘First Data study in the US’, almost 8 out of 10 credit card holders belong to a credit card loyalty program. People always look for ways to save and earn more money. “The Cash Back industry is a relatively new market development within the performance-based marketing space. However, it provides significant value and relevance to both the consumer and the participating stores. Customers shop at their favorite online stores, as they normally do, and earn Cash Back on each purchase. Ominto provides a variety of localised payment solutions making Cash Back easy to redeem including PayPal, a DubLi Debit MasterCard ® , Paytm... all depending on the user’s preference, region of the world and currency settings. Our customers are not required to take action beyond their regular purchases to earn Cash Back – and they can do it at any of their preferred stores. “DubLi.com’s Cash Back model doesn’t conflict with other loyalty programs or memberships; rather it’s complementary. The customer can still book a flight, earn their bonus miles, earn Cash Back from their credit card, and earn Cash Back when shopping through DubLi.com. This triple dip strategy provides great benefits for consumers all over the globe.” With customers in more than 120 countries, DubLi. com is the most comprehensive global Cash Back shopping website in the world. It gives shoppers exclusive access to online retail and travel deals, discounts, voucher codes, free shipping offers and, most importantly, Cash Back on every purchase. Joining DubLi.com is easy and free Customers can join DubLi.com via Facebook, Twitter, or Google+ to save time signing up and new customers are welcomed with free boosted Cash Back, which gives them double Cash Back for the first 90 days. “Customers can also choose their preferred site language and shop from thousands of brand name stores, including leading global brands such as Amazon.in ® , Wal-Mart ® , Nike ® , Hotels.com ® , Groupon™, and Expedia ® ,” Michael explains. “A customer registers only once and enjoys the benefits forever. Additionally, DubLi.com rewards customers even further for their Cash Back earnings with an extra bonus of $10 for each $15 they earn each month. The lucrative Refer-a-Friend program is paying up to $10 for each new VIP Lounge member referred. A customer can choose to invite friends via email or share their personalised referral link on social media, their own website, via text or elsewhere,” Michael adds. The DubLi.com VIP Lounge - one place to access deep discounts, coupons and earn extra Cash Back For more engaged e-shoppers, DubLi.com offers an annual VIP Lounge membership. This enhanced membership offers shoppers exclusive access to additional features, benefits, deals, discounts, extra Cash Back and faster payout of their available Cash Back, all for only $99 a year. Michael goes on to explain that the VIP Lounge is an exclusive saving community with a members-only benefits package not found anywhere else. “The benefits package consists of multiple offers. Regular benefits for all customers worldwide include extra Cash Back and faster payouts of available Cash Back. Regional or local country offers include exclusive deals that we extend according to our VIP Lounge members’ usage. Not only do our VIP lounge members receive all the benefits above, but they also have access to relevant products and/or services that enhance the membership value and engagement. The VIP Lounges offers a product and benefit mix, unmatched in the global Cash Back industry, which provides a single point of access to a complete array of saving opportunities. DubLi’s VIP Lounge offers multiple ways to save on hotel rooms, travel, flights, local shopping, dining, services, and entertainment and leisure activities - all in one convenient location. With the launch of this new membership package, in April 2017, the company introduced DubLi Travel, the company’s own travel search engine in partnership with some of the most prominent global travel brands - priceline.com , Booking.com and agoda.com. DubLi Travel offers VIP Lounge members savings on hotel bookings with deep discounts of up to 60% with 6% Cash Back on top of that, making it a one-stop-shop for travelers looking for the best hotel accommodation deals anywhere in the world. Thus, VIP Lounge members can benefit consistently from the lowest prices, eliminating the need to wait for last-minute deals or compromising on quality and variety. The recently launched new VIP Lounge offers a unique set of saving in the travel, leisure and entertainment activities, local shopping, and dining and services categories. VIP Lounge members can save instantly with a digital coupon book on their everyday needs with thousands of discounts on local services, leisure, shopping and dining. VIP Lounge members can save up to 50% at local restaurants, shops and more and can redeem coupons right from their smartphone. Furthermore, VIP Lounge members can save on air travel with 10% discounted flight vouchers on round-trip flights anywhere in the world. The VIP Lounge is available to DubLi.com customers worldwide and includes both global and regional offers to suit the company’s multi-cultural, multi-regional and diverse customer base. Both global and regional offers and deals can be accessed by any VIP Lounge member, regardless of the country they live, giving them the flexibility to save anywhere in the world. “Our company’s goal is to maximize their offering in keeping with the latest e-commerce trends, such as mobile shopping and couponing, while always providing members with a variety of savings opportunities. This is our company mission at its most basic level and has been since its founding in 2003. Our focus is to ensure that our membership model is relevant and a driver - that helps VIP Lounge members achieve maximize savings on all their spending - regardless of the shopping channel. “The concept of the VIP Lounge is simple. Members receive up to several hundred of dollars of potential savings. Why not spend $99 for a year to save more, either $400 in travel benefits or an extra $400 in VIP Cash Back,” Michael adds. White-label and co-branded partner programs In Michael’s opinion, loyalty programs are no longer an option for businesses, but they are a requirement. He believes there are two primary challenges for operating successful loyalty programs - offering relevant and easy to redeem rewards to customers and long customer lifetime values. Many loyalty programs are point-based and have only a limited number of products or services, he underlines, before expanding this point in his own words. “Moreover, for customers who only make a few purchases each year, point-based systems become tricky to implement and difficult to maintain. This results in cost-intensive, time-consuming programs for businesses and organizations.