Barclaycard is launching a loyalty card scheme to its eight million credit card holders next month built using Welcome Real-time technology.
The scheme, Barclaycard Freedom, will enable customers to earn rewards simply by using their existing cards at over 30,000 retail shops, restaurants and online businesses across the UK.
Rather than collect rewards or vouchers for later use, Barclaycard will be able to communicate in real-time with customers at point of sale. So offers of cash off future purchases can be delivered in real-time to customers at the till. This will be available not only at big high-street retailers but a host of smaller merchants.
“Part of the strategy was to be able to address merchants from small retailers to the high street. Our software can integrate with standalone terminals and EPOS as well as Internet payments,” said Sebastien Slim, vice president global pre-sales and product marketing at Welcome Real-time.
A message from Barclaycard Freedom will be presented to the customer at the POS, before the transaction begins, explaining how many points they have earned and whether they want to redeem them immediately. The aim is to have 200 retailers within five-mile radius of where a cardholder lives.
The software gives Barclarycard the option of targeting customers individually, rewarding valued customers with additional incentives, rather than a standard 1% value of each transaction. Overall, Slim believed this could change the relationship between banks, retailers and customers.