POCKETvouchers makes escape from too hard basket with new partnerships
Auckland mobile marketing company POCKETvouchers has a bit of a spring in its step after signing deals with global payment processor ePay and local daily deal site GrabOne recently. And chief executive Todd Wackrow says the new partnerships have streamlined the voucher process for marketers and allow the business to expand into other markets.
The partnership with epay Worldwide means the 25,000 retailers across New Zealand and Australia using epay payment terminals will be able to implement POCKETvouchers’ trackable, coded SMS vouchers for marketing and loyalty campaigns. Key retailers with epay terminals in New Zealand include BP, Caltex, Mobil and Z service stations (so FMCG campaigns can be implemented through the petroleum channel), as well as Dick Smith and Harvey Norman. epay is already a popular terminal choice for many retail chains in Australia and GrabOne’s presence is growing there, so the deals have allowed the company to launch in that market this month.
“A major factor holding back growth of mobile vouchers globally is the amount of technical integration needed at the retail outlet to be able to validate voucher codes in real time,” says Wackrow. “Our epay partnership removes the need for this with the functionality now essentially becoming a turn-key solution, so we are excited about the growth potential this gives our business.”
POCKETvouchers’ partnership with GrabOne streamlines the redemption process for merchants with the epay system by eliminating the need for manual checking of voucher numbers against a master list and also adds new tracking capabilities, including the exact time and location of a redemption as well as the total spend on top of the voucher amount.
Currently this “incremental spend” can only be estimated by the merchant but using POCKETvouchers it can be accurately measured and included in post campaign reports.
“With GrabOne selling some 45,000 plus vouchers a week we are always looking for ways to improve the process for our merchants,” says Shane Bradley, founder and chief executive of GrabOne. “As well as eliminating the paper trail and validating vouchers instantly, we can also now accurately track a customer’s total spend, which is important for demonstrating to merchants the wider benefits GrabOne offers our customers.”
There is no doubt the appetite for digital deals and vouchers has increased massively over the past 12 months and Wackrow believes these partnerships will allow POCKETvouchers, which started in 2006, to capitalise on the increased demand.
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