A new type of online loyalty program can help retailers not only tap into the popularity of online auctions, but also increase brand awareness with consumers, Woburn, MA-based FairMarket Inc., which helps retailers sell excess inventory through eBay, tells InternetRetailer.com. FairMarket has developed loyalty programs for the Miller Brewing Co. and Burger King Corp. that allow consumers to use points to bid on private-label eBay auctions. Through the bidding process, customers interact more with the retail brand because they send and receive e-mails reminding them of bids, updating bids and finalizing winning bids, says Mark Sutton, marketing director at FairMarket.
"There are a couple of different ways retailers can interact with customers," he says. "They can encourage frequency of purchase to revisit the store in order to accumulate points to bid with or they can give away bonus points for signing up and renewing or for making a certain number of purchases in a month." He also points out that retailers can gather current customer contact information via the bidding and registration processes, as well as finding out how many points are redeemed for products purchased.
Miller Brewing Co., for example, was able to collect such demographic information as which Miller product was a customer’s favorite and where customers like to drink it. It also was able to segment customers by age and region.
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