Perth firm’s loyalty card scheme is expanding
A Perth-based financial technology company is playing its part in helping reinvigorate high streets up and down the country.
Miconex, creator of the Mi Rewards loyalty scheme, has seen its programme approaching £1 million in sales nationally with over 47,000 transactions.
Mi Rewards is a payment card linked loyalty scheme with customers receiving rewards when they use linked debit or credit cards in participating local businesses in their town or city.
Once cards are linked the technology runs in the background and users don’t have to show a separate loyalty card.
Perth now has over 80 local businesses registered with the programme and an estimated seven per cent of Perth’s adult population.
Founded in Perth in 2018, Mi Rewards is part of the town and city loyalty programme from local Miconex and loyalty platform Stampfeet.
Despite the pandemic, Mi Rewards expanded across the UK in 2020 with launches in Fleet, Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, Stoke-on-Trent, Guildford and Gloucester.
Miconex, which operates over 60 town and city Gift Card programmes in the UK and Ireland, will launch new Mi Rewards schemes in Kirkcaldy and Barnsley this year as part of its coronavirus recovery work.
Managing director of Miconex Colin Munro said: “The vision with Mi Rewards was for a more efficient solution to the loyalty problem that businesses face. Traditional loyalty schemes have tried and failed.
“Mi Rewards is a nextgeneration loyalty solution that approaches loyalty at a place level, bringing businesses together in a coalition, in a way that is beneficial to the business, the customer and the town or city.
“Places and businesses can use the data they receive to better understand their customers, measuring and identifying what works and what doesn’t, and rewarding local spend.
“Mi Rewards offers zero friction, positive user experience and huge potential for solving the conundrum of high street loyalty.”
City and town centre management officer for Perth and Kinross Council Emily Queen said: “Mi Rewards has been operating in Perth for a number of years now but there is huge potential for the scheme to continue to develop.
“One of the ways we will do this is by bringing more national businesses on board.
“Initially, the focus was on the independent businesses, but having those high footfall brands will aid growth of the scheme by widening its appeal.
“From the Mi Rewards dashboard we can see customers’ profiles, including background and location to better understand their choices, preferences and habits; information that businesses can use to tailor their offering to customers’ buying habits.
“But where I see the future of the system is using the data to inform the kind of shops that people want, challenging traditional ideas of what we think customers want with the reality.
“Data is essential as we continue to adapt and build our high streets of the future.”
A revamped website was also introduced this month to provide support for new and existing Mi Rewards locations as businesses reopen following the latest lockdown.
The site features a greater focus on participating businesses, including a promotions page for the business to improve visibility and traction with potential customers.