Delivering the right offers, at the right time to every mobile phone seamlessly.
Reward Technology (RT) provides a digital detection and communications solution that improves insight and intelligence into consumer behaviour and enhances customer engagement and loyalty – with no barriers to consumer interaction. Through its enabling technology RT has, to our knowledge, developed the world’s only digital platform that can deliver personalised content at the point of entry to a store, shopping mall, office or hotel to any mobile device, including feature phones. RT’s solution revolutionises the way businesses reach and interact with customers within the retail, hospitality, security and office sectors, by providing more data-driven, targeted and stimulating customer engagement. For all these sectors working in the fast growing, highly disruptive and innovative digital and mobile worlds there is no neat single uniform solution for how any company detects, communicates and engages actively with its customers. RTs solution is a bridge to this brave new world of digital tranformation in key service and brand-led industries.
The innovation and market potential for RT’s solutions have been recognised by Innovate UK, who recently awarded RT an unconditional offer of nearly £250,000 for grant funding under their Smart scheme, to further develop the next phases in RT’s Smartcard and no-carded solution roadmap.
As a digital communication solutions company, RT will help retail and service companies to grow their revenues by enabling more effective and personalised promotional content for customers. All being delivered through automatic detection of the loyalty card on entry.
RT has devised, and filed patents for, a number of ways to dominate digital communication delivery and data capture by detecting the customer when they enter the premises*. By delivering highly targeted content to any mobile devices, RT allows digital communication to be inclusive for all, not just the consumers with the latest version of smartphones.
The solutions facilitate greater data capture to understand customers better, whilst lowering the expenditure through precise campaign management, reduction of paper waste and distribution costs.
RT’s solutions will impact directly the coupon industry and location-based marketing/services market, both of which are currently going through substantial changes, with a heavy drive from traditional advertising and promotion towards digital channels. The market for reward and loyalty programmes is currently volume driven with antiquated and ineffective delivery systems to the consumer (traditionally mail or paper based) – meaning high costs for the retailer and FMCGs, uncontrolled redemption levels and low yields on marketing.
Coupon industry:
• $328bn – face value of coupon business in the US
• Over $43bn – total redemption value of mobile coupons globally by 2016
Location-based marketing:
• $4.5bn – current value of location-based mobile advertising, which is due to rise to over $10bn by 2017
RT Competitive Advantage:
• Location-based
• Leverages loyalty history
• Easily Integrated solution: any mobile device
• No change in customer behaviour required
• Patent-pending technology
• No technology barriers for the clients’ customers
(1) Pending patent has been internationalised including in the following countries: Europe (Countries within the EPO), Canada, U.S., Mexico, Brazil, Egypt, U.A.E., India and China.
Key achievements that have been accomplished:
• The testing and qualification is completed and initial hardware and dual technology cards have been developed to enable other applications and business verticals
• Software is completed for phase one and has now been deployed and is in operation in number of live systems at customer sites
• Key technology partners and suppliers are fully aligned to enable successful execution
• RT is heavily engaged in numerous customer discussions for imminent pilot installations
• A joint venture has been established in Dubai to service the Middle East and North Africa
RT is now positioned to fully exploit its technologies and services in the market place. While most retailers are either hesitant to be the guinea pig or engaging too early with emerging digital technologies, RT can enable them right now with a bridging solution that acts as a road map to take them where they want and need to go in the brave new digital world. Many retailers are engaging too early with emerging technologies, RT can enable them right now with a road map to take them where they want and need to go.
Lastly RT has just won a £250k Innovate UK grant to further develop the next phases in our Smartcard and non-carded solution roadmap.
Revenue streams:
1. Sale of cards – a charge for each individual card delivered to the client.
2. RT Card Registration – RT’s registration process enables card registration to be completed within 60-90 seconds, currently retailers can take 4-6 weeks to issue registered cards.
3. Sale of equipment – equipment includes the hardware (RFID reader boxes and antennas). This will vary by customer depending on site of install. RT is constantly developing and testing the use of lower cost units to reduce costs and increase margins.
4. System configuration charge – configuration of the RT technology per installation. Typical range from £300-500 per day.
5. Charges per offer sent – charge per offer will typically be 10c/6p for supermarkets. For clients with low levels of activity, pricing per offer sent will need to be increased. Eventually based on customer data and targeting solutions being assessed in various markets a redemption only model will be implemented .
6. Charge per detection – this is a data capture model to deliver an extra level of data on customer time in store to better analysis shopper segmentation models.
7. A charge for action on detection – for those clients who wish to act upon detection, e.g. send a message or offer through their own CRM systems, RT will apply a charge.
8. Commission of sales – RT will charge a percentage commission on items sold when an offer is redeemed. Again, this will vary depending on the type of retailer and their expected volume of sales and value of the goods.
9. Monthly subscription charge – this charge incorporates support and use of the system, it is predominantly applicable to office, security and hospitality solutions. Some messages will also be included in this package, as well as the notification screen at the reception desks.
10. Monthly analytics reports – RT will provide monthly analytics reports to clients, with a range of data, according to the level of data and insight requested.
Funds raised will be used for the following purposes:
Sales and marketing: £968k
• Increase the sales and marketing efforts, to drive customer acquisition, accelerate market adoption and revenue growth. By month 6 post-fundraise, RT aims to have installed across 28 locations.
• Funds will be spent on sales and marketing staff salaries, attendance of conferences/congresses, and overheads relating to the sales cycle.
Technology development: £405k
RT will work on further development of the technology, in the following areas:
• Further development of the software
• Qualification of lower cost hardware as it appears in the market
• Integration of emerging technologies such as BLE Beacons, MAC address detection, 3G/4G
• Development of RT’s card antenna for further dual technology cards and performance
• Building of a technical support capability
Project management: £252k
• As clients are secured, money will be spent on hiring project managers to aid implementation.
Retailers: A large number of data analysis companies (which is a key requirement to deliver highly targeted offers) are London based and the majority of these companies are engaged to some extent with RT. Retailers have a need to move from paper based solution to digital but there are too many technological and logistical barriers to deliver mass appeal currently. As we removed the current technological barriers, our automated communication process for the consumers and store staff enables a seamless process to be implemented. RT are currently in negotiations with a number of leading retailer focused service providers to sign exclusive distribution agreements. As well as supermarkets RT is in talks with a number Mall operators, mainly in the Middle East. RT’s solution can be implemented with varying levels of integration: no EPOS integration, basic EPOS integration with limited data capture and full web enabled EPOS integration for fully personalised offers.
Hospitality: RT’s software has been adapted to alert front-of-house personnel of the presence of cardholders by displaying a customer profile extracted from their database. This enables businesses to deliver excellent customer service and customers to have an unparalleled personalised experience, from the moment members enter the building.
Offices/Security/Universities: For the office or workspace environment, RT deploys dual technology cards that combine RT’s UHF detection technology along with various short-range detection for door locks (NFC-Prox-MiFare etc.). The backend system allows for the detection of clients or employees to give greater insight into entrance/exit data, preventing tailgating, increasing billing capabilities and security levels. With RT’s capabilities, businesses can now also communicate relevant information based on location and detection.
The paper coupon marketplace is a very volume-focused business and antiquated. Paper coupons gain 1-2% redemption, which can be increased through targeting.
The US coupon business is in excess of 305 billion coupons p.a. with a face value of $328 billion and redemptions of $4.6 billion. In the fast-emerging market of mobile coupons, which is still in a state of infancy, Juniper Research predicts that the total redemption value of mobile coupons will exceed $43bn (£27bn) globally by 2016.
There has been a huge increase in location-based marketing in recent years. Retailers are seeing LBM as a way to more effectively engage with consumers – with 90% of retail sales still occurring in-store, it represents a method of enriching and improving the chances of converting footfall into sales. Location based marketing is estimated at $4.5bn, with a projected rise to over $10bn by 2017 (Source: Cisco).
There are many Apps delivering offers, these tend to be affiliate models with little targeting.
Initial research and planning for launching RT was concentrated on the UK market, with the ambition to expand into other geographies quickly. The focus is to do this with strategic partners in key territories or service providers. In 2014 Q3, RT has established a JV for the MENA region with offices now in Dubai.
Tech Partners: RT is currently working with Response Group and G-stat, and is in talks with Samsung, Microsoft and Intel on POS integration, analysis and payment systems. RT is in advanced discussions with a leader in store doorway antitheft systems, where they are capable now to read RT’s loyalty card system.
Data Analysis companies: Close collaboration with customer analytics software companies helps RT to recognise gaps in the market where it can deliver innovative solutions and add significant value.
Loyalty Card manufacturers: Working with loyalty card manufacturers enables RT to integrate the technology required and reduce costs.
Social Media companies: There are potential collaboration models with companies like Facebook, relating to the retail market.
FMCG brands: The FMCG sector are focused more on digital engagement to create targeted, personalised communications with consumers and gain better insight.
Dominant coupon companies: For companies like Valassis and Catalina, RT will be able to offer a new digital communication channel.
Marcomms: Activity is being driven through a mix of Press/PR, trade shows and conferences.
Since launch, RT has built up an extensive list of contacts, to which they promote the company and inform prospective customers of developments and new milestones the company has achieved.
Trade shows and conferences: RT is actively promoting itself at trade shows and congresses around the world. The company is currently focusing on shows where both initial introductions and continued discussion with high-priority companies can be established and maintained.
RT is working in a nascent market, and the company believes there to be no direct competitors. RT believes that there is currently no one company that offers such a comprehensive solution as it does, and that its focus on using technology in order to remove technology barriers will lead to greater engagement from customers. Therefore, RT believes that it has a strong competitive advantage for a number of reasons:
Paper based coupons: There has been minimal progress in the paper couponing market for years, the current trend is to increase the frequency of mailings, incurring additional costs and processing time. FMCGs have little control over supermarkets’ control of coupons, and with long gestation periods and disappointing redemption rates they are seeking change.
Smartphone Loyalty Apps: The majority of retailer apps are used by online shoppers, there is little motivation for in-store shoppers to download apps. This space is currently over crowded with consumers starting to grow apathetic and companies finding it harder to drive downloads of apps.
RT is developing its own high performance card antenna design to both boost performance and enable easier integration with other card or chip-and-pin based technologies.
The new Bluetooth 4 BLE, also being referred to as Beacons has gained much attention in the media and with some retailers. However, due to many current technical restrictions for users, retailers are now realising that it will take a longer period than previously assumed for BLE to be commercially applicable and will still have too many hurdles for most customers.
Thus, RT is developing an optional and/or complementary Beacon detection mechanism within its system, providing customers with a totally future proof route from card to a fully digital world when the technology and consumers preferences change.
Team
Updates
RT has been selected as one of 6 “Retail Tech companies with Traction” to present at tonight’s MatchCapital event in WeWork’s South Bank location London. Each company will present a short pitch on the opportunity to potential investors including representatives from the following – Angels Den – Angel Lab – Barclays Wealth – Bluewire Capital – Cass Entrepreneurship Fund – Deepbridge Capital – DN Capital – Entrepreneurs Fund – Envestors – Episode 1 – Forward Partners – Jenson Solutions – Mercia Fund Management – Mitsui – Nauta Capital – Oxford Capital Partners – Piton Capital – Royal Mail Innovations – Ruffena Capital – Schneider Investment Associates – Seedrs – Syndicate Room – Venture Founders. Details of the event and registration you can find at the link below
match-capital.mitingu.com/matchup-2-finding-inv…