Winning them over for good
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The struggle for loyal customers is hotting up between shopping centre owners. Yet another weapon has emerged – a card for regular customers that can be used throughout the entire centre
Getting someone to visit a shopping centre once is no real problem, but to get a customer to shop regularly is an entirely different proposition.
As Robert Szczepankowski, president of the board of T4B explains: “Over the past few years Poles have begun to appreciate and value shopping centres as the best places to purchase goods. We also like the different promotional campaigns and discounts on offer. But no one really likes carrying several dozen payment cards in his wallet. They are simply inconvenient.”
Keep customers together
There is a simple solution – one card that can be used in several retail outlets in the same centre. The plastic card offers price reductions and its owner collects points which translate into a substantial bonus. But this kind of loyalty system has not been taken up so enthusiatically, at least until now. Several managers shrugged in resignation when we asked them about this scheme. But others have decided to take the risk. Anna Bator, marketing manager of Cefic, which manages the Wola Park centre on behalf of Simon Property/Ivanhoe Cambridge, says: “We shall start up the loyal customer card system again, in mid-November, entitling purchases to be made at reduced prices in specific outlets. Such loyalty cards are no novelty in Wola Park, making their appearance for our centre’s first birthday in September 2003.” However, after credit cards for customers were introduced in the summer of 2005 in partnership with MultiBank, the previous loyalty programme was suspended. The manager now wants to see it reactivated. A similar system has been in operation in Warsaw’s Blue City since this September, after preparations to introduce it began in the spring. Krzysztof Sajnóg, Blue City’s marketing manager, puts it this way: “When introducing the loyalty card, we wanted to create a kind of community among tenants which would in turn generate a synergy among the retailers in the centre. Today, competition is being waged among shopping centres and not individual outlets. The card also gives tenants the opportunity to reach customers with a more direct form of advertising – people whom we know well since they actually spend money in Blue City. We know who they are, where their interests lie and what they use their finance for. And we also show respect for such customers, offering them not only reduced prices but also special prizes.” Discussions and negotiations with tenants were long and difficult, but ultimately proved to be worthwhile.
A bit of technology
More than 7,000 Blue City customers and around 4,500 in Wola Park carry pieces of plastic with unique numbers in their wallets. In the case of Wola Park, to qualify to hold one of these involves purchasing goods for a certain sum, while all you have to do in Blue City is fill in a questionnaire. The blue-coloured form gives the manager the information he needs, not only of a customer’s personal data (address, marital status, number of children etc.) but also of their interests, for example, and the frequency of their visits to the centre. Wola Park collects similar data. When the card has been issued, the shop assistant enters the number of the card and the sum for which the sales chit was issued for each transaction in selected retail outlets, with this information next being entered onto a database which forms the basis for a sales report.
Investment required
According to Robert Szczepankowski of T4B: “The idea to create an extensive loyalty system which would gather data about customer preferences was born in 2003, but the market was not yet ready for such a step. We are presently working to establish a real loyal customer card using Verifon payment terminals and devices of our own design. These devices – known as ‘black boxes’ – are a kind of foretaste of such cards. They allow sales assistants to monitor transactions registered by each cash desk, independent of type. The special software used allows reports on payments to all cash desks in the whole centre to be created and updated and analyses made at any moment.”
The system is currently being implemented in the Manufaktura centre in Łódź, which includes all 430 cash desks (around 90 different types). At this moment, the Apsys system can monitor data originating in around 300 cash desks. The T4B president is negotiating with tenants to convince them to expand the system and gradually introduce a customer loyalty card programme.
Robert Szczepankowski points out that: “Many chains have their own loyalty systems based, for instance, on a system of price reductions. But smaller tenants often have lower profit margins and approach any suggestion to reduce them further with horror. But one must also be aware of any increase in profits it may generate.”
The T4B boss is of the opinion that the conclusions reached after analysis of collected data are useful in property management; for instance, should children’s products be usually sold between 10 and 12 am, but between 6 and 9 pm these shops are void of customers, this may cause thought to be given to whether such outlets could promote sales of these goods in the evening.
Green light for tenants
In Blue City, 94 retailers out of around 200 have been won over to the concept of a single common card. Roman Skowroński, Cefic portfolio director, remarks that: “In my view, introducing a card is unjustified should less then 50 pct of the tenants consent. In Wola Park, around 65 outlets have signed up to the scheme.” He adds that his company is working on a system in other shopping centres it manages, including Warszawa Wileńska, Arkadia and Bemowo in Warsaw, Zakopianka in Kraków, Dąbrówka in Katowice, Arena in Gliwice, Borek in Wrocław, Turzyn in Szczecin and Morena in Gdańsk.
Ewa Andrzejewska
Getting someone to visit a shopping centre once is no real problem, but to get a customer to shop regularly is an entirely different proposition.
As Robert Szczepankowski, president of the board of T4B explains: “Over the past few years Poles have begun to appreciate and value shopping centres as the best places to purchase goods. We also like the different promotional campaigns and discounts on offer. But no one really likes carrying several dozen payment cards in his wallet. They are simply inconvenient.”
Keep customers together
There is a simple solution – one card that can be used in several retail outlets in the same centre. The plastic card offers price reductions and its owner collects points which translate into a substantial bonus. But this kind of loyalty system has not been taken up so enthusiatically, at least until now. Several managers shrugged in resignation when we asked them about this scheme. But others have decided to take the risk. Anna Bator, marketing manager of Cefic, which manages the Wola Park centre on behalf of Simon Property/Ivanhoe Cambridge, says: “We shall start up the loyal customer card system again, in mid-November, entitling purchases to be made at reduced prices in specific outlets. Such loyalty cards are no novelty in Wola Park, making their appearance for our centre’s first birthday in September 2003.” However, after credit cards for customers were introduced in the summer of 2005 in partnership with MultiBank, the previous loyalty programme was suspended. The manager now wants to see it reactivated. A similar system has been in operation in Warsaw’s Blue City since this September, after preparations to introduce it began in the spring. Krzysztof Sajnóg, Blue City’s marketing manager, puts it this way: “When introducing the loyalty card, we wanted to create a kind of community among tenants which would in turn generate a synergy among the retailers in the centre. Today, competition is being waged among shopping centres and not individual outlets. The card also gives tenants the opportunity to reach customers with a more direct form of advertising – people whom we know well since they actually spend money in Blue City. We know who they are, where their interests lie and what they use their finance for. And we also show respect for such customers, offering them not only reduced prices but also special prizes.” Discussions and negotiations with tenants were long and difficult, but ultimately proved to be worthwhile.
A bit of technology
More than 7,000 Blue City customers and around 4,500 in Wola Park carry pieces of plastic with unique numbers in their wallets. In the case of Wola Park, to qualify to hold one of these involves purchasing goods for a certain sum, while all you have to do in Blue City is fill in a questionnaire. The blue-coloured form gives the manager the information he needs, not only of a customer’s personal data (address, marital status, number of children etc.) but also of their interests, for example, and the frequency of their visits to the centre. Wola Park collects similar data. When the card has been issued, the shop assistant enters the number of the card and the sum for which the sales chit was issued for each transaction in selected retail outlets, with this information next being entered onto a database which forms the basis for a sales report.
Investment required
According to Robert Szczepankowski of T4B: “The idea to create an extensive loyalty system which would gather data about customer preferences was born in 2003, but the market was not yet ready for such a step. We are presently working to establish a real loyal customer card using Verifon payment terminals and devices of our own design. These devices – known as ‘black boxes’ – are a kind of foretaste of such cards. They allow sales assistants to monitor transactions registered by each cash desk, independent of type. The special software used allows reports on payments to all cash desks in the whole centre to be created and updated and analyses made at any moment.”
The system is currently being implemented in the Manufaktura centre in Łódź, which includes all 430 cash desks (around 90 different types). At this moment, the Apsys system can monitor data originating in around 300 cash desks. The T4B president is negotiating with tenants to convince them to expand the system and gradually introduce a customer loyalty card programme.
Robert Szczepankowski points out that: “Many chains have their own loyalty systems based, for instance, on a system of price reductions. But smaller tenants often have lower profit margins and approach any suggestion to reduce them further with horror. But one must also be aware of any increase in profits it may generate.”
The T4B boss is of the opinion that the conclusions reached after analysis of collected data are useful in property management; for instance, should children’s products be usually sold between 10 and 12 am, but between 6 and 9 pm these shops are void of customers, this may cause thought to be given to whether such outlets could promote sales of these goods in the evening.
Green light for tenants
In Blue City, 94 retailers out of around 200 have been won over to the concept of a single common card. Roman Skowroński, Cefic portfolio director, remarks that: “In my view, introducing a card is unjustified should less then 50 pct of the tenants consent. In Wola Park, around 65 outlets have signed up to the scheme.” He adds that his company is working on a system in other shopping centres it manages, including Warszawa Wileńska, Arkadia and Bemowo in Warsaw, Zakopianka in Kraków, Dąbrówka in Katowice, Arena in Gliwice, Borek in Wrocław, Turzyn in Szczecin and Morena in Gdańsk.
Ewa Andrzejewska
