Close the marketing loop to increase sales
The ability to measure sales activity against actual marketing expenditure – commonly referred to as “closing the marketing loop” – has historically been a challenge for all retailers, decreasing the overall effectiveness of marketing campaigns. Bevan Ducasse, CEO of wiGroup, says that new developments in the mobile space will solve this limitation moving forward.
“Linking marketing spend to actual performance, measured through the point of sale terminal (POS), has historically been a challenge,” explains Ducasse. “When a customer arrives at the till with a loaded basket, how do you identify the campaign to which they are responding to, or even if they’re responding to a campaign at all? wiGroup’s open platform now allows brands and retailers to close the loop.”
Changing anything on the POS is onerous for a retailer, as it’s expensive, time-consuming and potentially disruptive, all of which may result in lost trade. The market today is comprised of a whole host of mobile transaction service providers, each promoting their own single point solutions, which require a separate integration to the retailers’ POS systems. This is problematic and can impose serious limitations for the retailer. “Nobody wants to get locked in to a particular supplier or technology in a market space that’s changing so rapidly. It is not feasible to require new updates or developments at the POS in respect of new campaigns or mobile solutions” says Ducasse.
This headache for the retailers has now been addressed through a convenient and highly scalable solution offered by wiGroup. The wiGroup platform, enables retailers to accept any form of mobile currency and transaction type via a single integration.
“What has previously been missing is an open platform through which any mobile transaction service can talk to the POS. This is now possible through our platform. Furthermore the solution or campaigns run through the platform are not restricted based on mobile type – smartphone app, mobi site, SMS, USSD string or next month’s big thing – you are able to use all possible channels and focus on the best method to reach your desired customer base.”
Retailers, brands and agencies are now, for the first time, able to execute effective and measurable ‘closed loop’ mobile coupon and voucher campaigns . “WiGroup’s platform offers an open API for any mobile transaction service developer to use”, says Ducasse. “This transforms the POS into a portal that gives retailers full access to a wide range of mobile marketing and payment options.”
“Access to this universe of possibility requires just a single, once-off POS upgrade that can be implemented remotely”, says Ducasse. “All POS solutions can be accommodated and no hardware changes are required. It’s always going to be a pain to change a POS system. However, access to our platform ensures that you will only need to go through this process once to access vast unexplored opportunities in the mobile space.”