Compared to the expense required to attract new customers with advertisements or sales, loyalty programs like these are an inexpensive way to keep existing customers coming back and the money flowing in.

Although the average household has a dozen loyalty memberships, almost half of all consumers carry just one or two store membership cards with them, according to Consumer Reports. Knowing how hard it is to become the one card that shoppers carry religiously, retailers are offering bigger and bigger incentives – sometimes too big for a loyalty program to remain profitable.

Margento answers the above and many other challenges with fundamentally simple approach: forget cards – use mobile phones.

Innovative and flexible real-time mobile Margento Loyalty gives businesses of any size the ability to instantly recognize and reward customers at the point-of-sale without any costs associated with production, issuing and managing plastic loyalty cards or paper stamp coupons. Customers no longer need additional cards to carry and coupons or sticker points to collect and show. Their points, rewards and bonuses are safely stored in database and can be redeemed simply by using their mobile phone.

Margento Loyalty enables customers purchasing habits analysis, a foundation for comprehensive and relevant customer segmentation. Margento Loyalty is using the same channel for collecting/redeeming loyalty and for promoting targeted marketing directly to customer. By removing the gap between BLP transaction and information channel Margento Loyalty builds strong fundamentals for effective CRM.

By switching to mobile phones and implementing the below secret ingredients your loyalty program will be a huge sucess:

Secret #1: Be unique within your segment. It may bee too late to be the first, but you can always be unique. And with using mobile phones as loyalty and communication vehicle you will be.

Secret #2: Make participation easy. Remove every barrier between your program and your customers.

Secret #3: Understand and customize. Emphasize the relationship. Research and undesrtand your customers, build a dialogue and emphasize the relationship. Customize your benefits and rewards accordingly. Make all your communication personal and meaningful.

Secret #4: Target your customers with the most potential. Think hard – these are not neccesserialy your current best customers

Secret #5. Focus on your brand. Your brand is the main differentiator in the eyes of your customers – it is the reasonf for them bringing business to you.

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Retailers First Adopters of Mobile Payments

The benefits of mobile payment solutions for retailers are obvious. The ability to accept credit card payments or mobile payments on a wireless device such as a smartphone enables retailers to create a host of new, innovative and engaging retail platforms. “Pop-Up Retail,” a term coined by Trendwatching.com, is a temporary retail space designed to quickly draw in crowds in high traffic areas then disappear once buzz wanes. Think fairs, concerts and other outdoor venues with massive crowd attendance. Because these events have limited time durations the expense of creating a permanent retail space (and the infrastructure to support it like phone and internet lines) is prohibitive.

But don’t write-off those sales just yet – mobile payment systems bridge the gap. With the swipe of a credit card down the side of a payment-enabled iPhone or Blackberry gives you instant access to the same payment processors you already use – returning an instant payment authorization and integrating with accounting systems afterward to keep track of it all.

Future uses of mobile payments will extend beyond point of sale activity at events to providing useful payment tools for in-field staff such as carpet cleaners, repairmen, plumbers, etc. hoping to decrease the time between invoice and receipt of funds. Companies making house calls to discuss a customer’s outstanding invoices will be able to capture a payment instantly – offering the customer an option to avoid immediate disconnection of services.

Business-to-Business Companies Early to Late Majority

It’s true that many industries have adopted mobile data solutions for business-to-business customers, but most have focused on account and inventory information retrieval, logistics and routing solutions, and signature capture for goods delivered. In the future, businesses will move away from invoicing customers then waiting 30+ days for payment and will instead opt for mobile payment systems the customer uses at time of service or delivery to make payment. B2B companies will represent the Early to Late Majority adopters of this technology but its impact will be significant. The cost of managing receivables can be dramatically lowered leveraging mobile payment solutions.

In Summary – Brainstorm on how Mobile Payments can Impact Your Company

The multitude of killer applications available today on our web-enabled cell phones, smartphones and other similar devices would have been unheard of just four years ago – therefore, brainstorm for the future. You and your executive leadership should engage subject matter experts, both inside and outside the company, to determine how mobile payments are likely to affect your business model in the short and long term. Map out the impacts and begin developing a strategy to ensure you are proactively capturing the value mobile payment systems provide instead of reactively trying to catch up with your competition.

Are You Accepting Mobile Payments Yet?
By Kelly Short

Copyright 2009

Credits:

Gartner

Dataquest Insight: Mobile Payment, 2007-2012

http://www.gartner.com/DisplayDocument?ref=g_search&id=950812&subref=simplesearch#h30

Trendwatching.com

“Pop-Up Retail”

http://trendwatching.com/trends/POPUP_RETAIL.htm

Kelly Short is an expert in the technology, business process automation and marketing disciplines. He shares over 15 years worth of experience everyday at kellyrshort.com helping small and medium companies with actionable advice on increasing sales with powerful marketing, lowering operating costs using business process management, and leveraging unified technology to crush competition.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Kelly_Short
http://EzineArticles.com/?Are-You-Accepting-Mobile-Payments-Yet?&id=2449742

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Mobile coupons are coupons in a digital format, not paper, and created, distributed, redeemed and tracked via Margento System and people using their mobile phones.

Because of mobile phones ubiquity and the fact that they are almost always by a person’s side, by default, mobile coupons are available at pretty much anyplace and anytime.

Margento is well aligned with short- and long-term trends in the coupons industry:

1. Couponing is on the rise – whenever there is economic hardships, coupons usage increase.
2. While retailers are continuing and even accelerating their discounts offering, they make coupons restrictive by imposing shorter redemption duration periods and more purchase requirements to use the coupon.
3. From paper to digital coupons – Over 90% of coupons used today are offline coupons: newspaper coupons and those mailed directly to you. However, with growing online commerce, more and more people are using online coupons. With Margento, you can send coupons directly to your customers cell phones, freeng them the above mentioned hassle.
4. Connecting online coupons with existing store-loyalty programs – Most shoppers already participate in retailers’ loyalty programs. Margento enables retailers to easily integrate loyalta, coupons and even mobile gifts programs.
5. Mobile commerce innovations – Next to loyalty programs Margento offers complete software and hardware solutions to facilitate mobile payments. Thus, Margento is creating next generation of mobile payments and mobile coupons redemption solutions, that are available now.

Mobile couponing is gaining ground. With Margento, it is already here. It brings relevant information to shoppers who can make informed buying decisions resulting in cost savings and shorter buying process. It allows retailers to reach their customers easily and cost-efficiently, driving their sales and building their brand.

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According to the company, “Nokia Money has been designed to be as simple and convenient as making a voice call or sending an SMS. It will enable consumers to send money to another person just by using the person’s mobile phone number, as well as to pay merchants for goods and services, pay their utility bills, or recharge their prepaid SIM cards (SIM top-up). The services can be accessed 24 hours a day from anywhere, meaning savings in travel costs and time. Nokia is building a wide network of Nokia Money agents, where consumers can deposit money in or withdraw cash from their accounts.”

“We believe mobile financial services offer a market opportunity with long term growth potential. In many countries, mobile phone ownership significantly exceeds bank account usage, suggesting that many mobile phone users have very limited or no access to basic financial services. With more than 4 billion mobile phone users and only 1.6 billion bank accounts, global demand for access to financial services presents a strong opportunity to combine mobile devices with simple but powerful financial services such as Nokia Money,” said Mary McDowell, EVP and Chief Development Officer, Nokia.

Mobile payments will be the next step for delivering financial services to hundreds of millions of people, both urban and rural, who are underserved by existing payment means, especially in emerging economies.

“Rural consumers will particularly benefit from money transfers and, for urban consumers used to online services, we are enabling services such as payment of utility bills, purchase of train and movie tickets, top-ups, all through their mobile phones. Nokia Money is simple to use, secure and available across different operator networks and on virtually any mobile phone. This means millions of new consumers will soon be able to manage all their financial needs from their mobile phone,” said Teppo Paavola, VP and Head of Corporate Business Development, Nokia.

The Nokia Money service will be operated in cooperation with Obopay, a leader in developing global mobile payment solutions, which Nokia invested in earlier this year. The service is based on Obopay’s mobile payment platform, with unique and newly developed mobile elements. Nokia intends the service to be open and interoperable with other payment services as well.

“Obopay shares Nokia’s vision for bringing mobile financial services to millions of people worldwide. We’re excited that Nokia has chosen Obopay’s platform. Nokia’s leading market position, strong brand recognition and global distribution channel, using the Obopay platform with uniquely developed mobile elements, means the Nokia Money service is well positioned to bring the next generation of mobile payment services to the world,” said Carol Realini, Founder and CEO of Obopay.

Nokia Money is the result of a powerful collaboration Nokia is forging between different partners in different markets around the world. It is designed to work in partnership with mobile network operators and financial institutions, involving distributors and merchants in a dynamic ecosystem to seamlessly provide the new services.

“As a result of the innovative partnerships and comprehensive ecosystem we are forging with the banking and financial industry, as well as leading network operators, we believe Nokia Money will bring financial inclusion to many who currently have limited or no access to financial services. Uniting the strengths of the mobile and financial services industries will change the way people around the world can manage their money in the future,” added McDowell.

“Mobile financial services present a high growth sector for Nokia. Nokia’s asset strengths, including consumer brand awareness, distribution capabilities and global relationships should serve as logical and necessary extensions to drive innovation in the mobile payments and banking sector. To be successful Nokia must provide a legitimate bridge between operators, banks networks and security infrastructure in order to unlock the broad uptake of mobile financial services,” said Bob Egan, Global Head of Research and Chief Analyst, Towergroup.

The Nokia Money service will be shown for the first time at Nokia World on the 2nd and 3rd of September 2009 in Stuttgart, Germany, and it is planned to be rolled out gradually to selected markets, beginning in early 2010.

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