How Swan Retail helped build award-nominated loyalty for Jersey icon Voisins
As a software and payments business that spends every day developing and implementing technology solutions for our clients, it’s always enjoyable to work with businesses that have huge experience behind them. Businesses that have seen trends develop and emerge – businesses that have ridden the highs and lows that have naturally come along.
Of course, to thrive in business for decades or more requires vision, foresight and tremendous acumen – and a deep understanding of what customers need today, and – perhaps more importantly – tomorrow.
That’s precisely what Voisins department store in St Helier, Jersey, has in abundance.
The UK’s oldest family-owned department store was founded in 1837 and has been using ClearCourse brand Swan Retail’s solutions for the best part of two decades to help run both the in-store and online parts of its fashion, beauty and homeware business via its SRS (Swan Retail System), Cygnus EPOS and FUSE customer loyalty app.
Enhancing customer loyalty
Customer retention is always a huge challenge for businesses, and in retail – where price often drives purchase decisions – being able to keep customers loyal is a constant challenge.
During the global pandemic, retail businesses were forced to operate online, and customers became increasingly confident and familiar with transacting via retailers’ websites.
And this caused a problem for retailers – because typically, the online and bricks-and-mortar elements of their businesses had operated independently in terms of the tech powering them, and often as business units, too.
Of course, the ability to get a holistic, 360-degree of customer behaviour is vitally important in today’s world. Knowing what a customer’s done in-store and what they’ve done online can provide insights that can be monetised, and information on customer behaviour can be used to target offers – as well as increase relevancy.
Getting that view, however, relies entirely on having the right software solution in place…
A new era of customer loyalty
Previously, Voisins had a successful customer loyalty scheme that was department-specific, and relied on a physical card being stamped.
And while it had served a purpose, customer data was not easily traceable, and data wasn’t linked to its retail software. As a result, data on customer behaviour, such as purchase history, rewards usage and demographics was not being recorded – making targeted marketing near impossible, and limiting communications to blanket messaging.
Voisins needed a loyalty programme that covered all elements of the business, and created a single source of truth for customer data, which could be used to segment, target and position its marketing, with the ultimate aim of driving sales across all channels.
And so, the Swan Retail team got to work, collaborating closely with the Voisins team to deliver a solution that would help Voisins put the foundations in place for its next chapter.
Evolving a near-200-year-old business
The solution, Voisins Rewards, was created by Swan Retail’s project and product development teams, and was designed to integrate with its back office system, SRS, the website (built in WooCommerce, powered by Swan), its customer-facing loyalty app, powered by FUSE, its Omnisend account that manages email marketing campaigns and automation, and its EPOS, Cygnus.
Voisins wanted to be able to trigger a discount voucher when customer points reached a threshold. Thanks to Swan’s solution, vouchers are visible across all touchpoints, including at the till, which enables customers – who can sign up to the scheme in-app, on the website or in-store – to decide whether to use the vouchers in-store or not, and prompts staff to encourage customer spending.
Since launching the new Voisins Rewards, more than 13,000 customers have signed up – giving the business an extraordinary amount of insight into customer trends and purchasing patterns through which to tailor and target marketing.
And, as a result, the business has been able to achieve a £500 return for every £1 of marketing spend, as well as enjoying other benefits, including increased customer engagement, reduced admin time, and being able to nurture customers in real-time with exclusive offers.
The solution’s also been shortlisted for a 2023 Digital Jersey Tech Award – a glowing endorsement of the impact that app has had in a relatively short space of time.
A business’s history and longevity is a hugely powerful business asset – and layering an outcome-focused tech solution on top means the business is truly geared up for future success, too.
