July 15 2008

New customisable loyalty card launches

New multi-platform loyalty system allows merchants to create their own loyalty card quickly and easily

Databac Group (has launched a new loyalty system currently making waves in continental Europe. Loyca is a card-based solution that uniquely enables retailers to respond in real-time to marketing information. Retailers can make changes to customer reward programmes quickly and easily, to take advantage of marketing opportunities as they arise without disrupting the programme. It also works with a number of terminal platforms, making it particularly attractive to international retailers where different transaction terminals are in use across their stores.

Developed by Carta+ in Belgium, Loyca enables retailers to retain and reward existing customers and win new ones. It encourages loyalty to a business or brand, increases individual customer spend, enhances brand image and improves customer experience. Loyca also gathers customer data for micro-marketing analysis.

"We are very excited about this system," said Databac managing director Charles Balcomb. "Its performance on the Continent has been staggering - increases in turnover of 30 per cent have been reported - and we are pleased to be able to extend its benefits to the UK market."

Loyca has already been successfully rolled out at multinational organisations across Europe, where millions of Loyca cards are used in loyalty, payment and private purse applications.

Loyca allows retailers to implement their own customer reward programme. More than simply issuing customers with a store card, Loyca integrates marketing know-how and technological expertise. Nevertheless, its functionality is simple: transactions, such as loyalty points or percentage values on purchases, are recorded on a terminal using a card. This is sent to the front-end server which checks for data integrity, creates a uniform data structure and sends it on to the back-end server for processing.

Its flexible scripting language enables retailers to add features to the programme at any point, such as e-purse, e-ticketing and e-subscription. The 'logic' behind the loyalty scheme can be changed quickly and easily, to incorporate on-the-spot changes for events like Mother's Day, end-of-stock sales or special promotions.

by Marcus Austin (Web Editor)