In our digital world, the word ‘receipt’ might not sound innovative. You might wrongly assume that it's simply a record of a customer's purchase that's quickly stuffed away.
However, receipts can be a powerful marketing and messaging tool. And those retailers that have harnessed that power are driving phenomenal returns with a very strong ROI.
Engaging customers is increasingly tricky with traditional marketing channels. An email will only reach a fraction of your customers; the average open rate of retail emails is only 18.39%, before we even get to whether a customer even reads it or is prompted to take an action. And today’s customers only want to receive relevant, personalized communications; 71% of consumers expect companies to deliver personalized interactions as standard.
Successfully communicating, engaging, and marketing to shoppers is a challenge.
You need a method of putting the right messaging, in front of the right customers, at the right time. Marketers have to adapt and use all the tools at their disposal. It's time to make the most of that piece of paper.
100% of your customers get a receipt. Whereas, only a certain percentage will subscribe to your email mailing list, sign up for your loyalty card scheme, or access your mobile app. In comparison, receipts are a guaranteed method of reaching your customers.
Beyond regular purchase information, a retail receipt can include:
Receipts don’t have to only be a proof of purchase. Your receipts are prime real estate to provide customers with relevant, engaging marketing campaigns that increase sales and improve customer retention.
Retail customers are 40% more likely to spend more than planned when their experience is highly personalized.
You can use retail marketing software to power your receipt marketing and make it relevant to individual customers. It works with your existing point of sale (POS) system and collects POS data at every customer transaction. This includes purchase behaviors like product quantity, average spend, basket size, and more, down to an individual customer level.
Using this information, you can send the right messaging and offers to the right shoppers. For example, a grocery retailer can offer a discount on vegan ice cream in the summer to customers who regularly purchase vegetarian or vegan products.
And when a personalized offer is conveniently delivered on a receipt, it delights your customers even more. These kinds of attachment offers, when delivered in a relevant and timely fashion, are both powerful and engaging.
A receipt marketing partner can help your retailer capitalize on the unique benefits of receipt marketing using data, not guesswork. You can collect, manage, and implement data into highly targeted campaigns that ensure every customer only receives messaging and marketing that’s relevant to them.
What are the benefits?
Every customer transaction is processed by your POS system. So, it’s inevitable that most retailers are hesitant to make changes to it. If something goes wrong, it could result in costly downtime for your business. The saying “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” might come to mind.
Retail marketing software should be a light-touch solution that doesn’t impact your existing POS software. A good receipt marketing partner will install the software alongside your POS system and Windows printer driver, or your equivalent solution. When a transaction is made, the retail marketing software instantly captures the POS data, sends it to the cloud, and processes it. It’s then sent back to your in-store receipt printer with the relevant offers. All within half a second.
Retail marketing software isn’t a replacement for your existing systems. Instead, it runs concurrent to them – making it a low-risk solution. If it stopped working, your existing POS software would continue like normal.
You could put broad marketing campaigns and messaging on your receipts. There’s no harm in promoting your seasonal sale to your entire customer base.
But if you’re offering a discount on children’s toys to customers who have never purchased from your children’s category – they’ll likely lose interest.
A retail marketing partner can help you get the most value out of your receipt marketing channel by enabling greater personalization.
Retail marketing software can recognize customer IDs and/or payment token data to engage with every shopper. POS data never records full payment card details, but a token can identify repeat customers without the need for a loyalty card. And better yet, personalization is equally as straightforward if your customers subscribe to your loyalty scheme.
Because retail marketing software is powered by POS data, it will only print offers, coupons, and messaging that are relevant to customers at an individual level.
Retail marketing software consolidates POS data and marketing data into one place. It acts as a single source of truth and provides real-time, up-to-date insight into trends and behavior. Your retail marketing teams can use it to power important marketing functions such as:
Not only can you put relevant messaging and marketing in front of your customers, but you can also get to grips with insights about your entire customer base or specific customer groups. These are delivered through easy-to-access and intuitive browser-based platforms that enable users to readily prepare reports and dashboards without needing analytical support.
With these insights, you can try and test what works and doesn't. This might be by trialing different offers, A/B testing, sending targeted marketing campaigns to specific groups, changing the design of your receipts, or promoting brand messaging to customers in a specific geographic location.
All retailers think that their marketing strategies are quick and agile. But in reality, you might be missing out on one of the most powerful marketing channels you have. Receipt marketing, also known as coupon marketing, reaches 100% of your customers. Whether it's a printed receipt or a digital receipt, customers will be more likely to return to or remember your brand with engaging, highly relevant receipts.
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