‘PAYBACK Offers Solutions To Acquire, Engage And Retain Customers Across Brands’

The loyalty program has caught the frenzy of the millennial, paying rich dividend to the company’s earnings and also enhancing the overall consumer experience.

The head marketing, online and affiliate partnerships of PAYBACK India, the largest loyalty program in the country, Gaurav Khurana, spoke to BW Businessworld on loyalty program and its acceptance in Indian markets.

Excerpts:

How was the company conceptualized? What was the idea behind PAYBACK?
PAYBACK, the largest loyalty program in Europe entered Indian market in 2010. Today, it is India’s largest multi-brand loyalty program offering its members a multitude of benefits over traditional, stand-alone customer loyalty schemes. With over 50 in-stores and online partner brands, the program has a wide reach covering nearly 70 per cent of everyday consumer spend categories ranging from groceries, travel, entertainment, apparel and more. PAYBACK enables consumers to collect and redeem loyalty points with a wide range of relevant partners across formats using a single card or even their mobile number on the move. The brand has received an overwhelming response in the country with over 50 million customers already associated with the platform and growing by the year.

Who are your partner brands across the retail industry?
PAYBACK has a merchant network of over 50 partner brands and more than 3000 points of sale across cities in India. Our partner brands are spread across retail, fuel, banking, entertainment, hospitality, wallets, travel, e-commerce and more like Future Group, HPCL, ICICI Bank, Hi-Care, EBay, Book My Show, MakeMyTrip, American Express, Formula 1 Hotels, Mobikwik, Oxigen, Myles and Easy Cabs.

How revenue is being shared with your partners? What percentage you charge on a successful transaction?
We have long term contracts with all our merchant partners with a mix of service and license fees to manage the loyalty program and for direct marketing services. Consumers benefit from discounts on purchases through points and coupons and from personalized special offers.

What are the new innovations introduced by PAYBACK?
At PAYBACK, we believe in embracing technology to constantly create a more rewarding experience for our customers. We have introduced many interesting products to enhance the customer experience and offer them a chance to maximise the full potential of the program like;

PAYBACK Bingo is our online comparison and shopping platform which enables users to shop more effectively. The platform not only provides a single view of the best offers across more than 30 plus e-tailers including Amazon, Flipkart, Snapdeal and more but also has user reviews, coupons and rewards for customers every month including a higher potential to earn points.

Another innovative solution is PAYBACK Everybuy which facilitates consumers to earn points on daily purchases just by uploading receipts of their transactions for categories ranging from F&B, Personal care to home care and more and these points can be redeemed on the PAYBACK partner network.

Moreover, PAYBACK was among the first to launch mobile identifier as a unique customer identifier. Customers no longer need to carry their loyalty card for their transactions as they can simply quote their mobile number to earn or redeem their points; online, over the phone or at the POSby simply linking their card to their registered mobile number. This has significantly enhanced customer engagement with over 60 per cent of our customers using this as a preferred choice of interaction.

How mature is the loyalty program strategy in the Indian retail sector?
In India, loyalty transactions have been growing consistently over the past few years due to more real-time and personalized experience being delivered to the customers. In such a scenario, coalition loyalty programs like PAYBACK can offer a unique and effective solution to acquire, engage and retain customers across brands. PAYBACK offers customers an opportunity to engage across a diverse portfolio of partner brands both in-store and online, with options to earn and spend points and avail rewards thereby creating stickiness. Retail companies have understood that to survive in the long run they need to move beyond traditional methods of marketing and engage with customers to build affinity and salience and loyalty programs address most of these concern areas.

What are your expansion plans?
Our focus will be mainly strengthening the partner base across various categories for a better user experience which will result in adding more users to the PAYBACK program. In all we will be focusing on ubiquity to give our customers more choice and freedom among various verticals.

We are also looking to focus more on the performance marketing platform. We believe in real time and targeted marketing, giving the customer an experience like no other in terms of right offer at the right time through the right channel. Our web portal, mobile app, mobile identifier platform are a step towards enhancing consumer shopping experience.