1. What is a merchant alliance?
Merchant alliances (also known as industry alliances/different industry alliances/business alliances/universal points) refer to cross-industry, multi-merchant alliances to provide rebates to members. Members only need to use an alliance membership card to spend at all alliance merchants and receive unified points rewards; accumulated points can be exchanged for gifts, cash consumption, points draws or direct cash back.
After joining the alliance, merchants can share members to increase their customer base and thus increase their sales; members only need one membership card to get rebates from all alliance merchants, which is also convenient for members.
The operators of the merchant alliance platform can also benefit from the profit growth of the alliance merchants.
Merchant alliances have two forms: one is the same industry across regions, such as Ctrip and E-Long, which are cross-regional merchant alliances in the travel booking industry; the other is cross-industry merchant alliances in the same region.
Reference article:
(1) "Merchant Alliance: The Game of Perseverers"
(2) "Focus on Merchant Alliance: Merchant Alliance Value Chain"
(3) "Business Alliance, how to "pass""
2. Where is the profit point of merchant alliance?
Early stage: collect franchise fees or advertising fees from alliance merchants, sell alliance cards to members, or collect membership fees; mid-term: commission sales rebates from alliance merchants, earn the difference between commissions and member points rewards; late stage: analyze sales data and member data, and provide value-added services. Through the existing platform, provide advertising services for merchants and obtain advertising fees.
3. What are the difficulties in implementing merchant alliances?
(1) Preliminary planning requires an overall plan for the project, a clear understanding of its own resource advantages and disadvantages, a good analysis of the local consumer market capacity, and the acceptance and recognition of merchants and members after the project is implemented. If you enter casually without considering the profit model and implementation plan of the project in detail, you will often stop implementing it due to difficulties in implementation or the profitability is not as good as expected.
(2) Financial support. The merchant alliance project is not a small project and requires sufficient financial support. At the same time, due to the particularity of the project, short-term profits are generally not possible, so you must be prepared for long-term hard work.
(3) Choosing the right points platform can reduce initial investment costs and subsequent operating costs, thereby ensuring profits; the main profit model of merchant alliances is nothing more than commission based on merchant sales. If the platform is too high or the operating costs are too high, profits will inevitably be eaten up, resulting in projects that are even unprofitable for a long time.
(4) Choose high-quality merchants to join. It is best not to join the whole industry and all merchants. Instead, choose high-quality merchants that are recognized by members, can provide members with high-quality services and preferential prices, and have commercial reputation, and can settle sales commissions to operators on time, thereby ensuring the interests of members and operators; (5) Do a good job in member marketing and publicity, so that more consumers can join the alliance and drive merchant consumption; "merchant" and "member" are both indispensable.
(6) Continue to provide good promotional services for merchants and provide the best quality members to ensure that merchants will indeed increase sales after joining, so as to retain merchants and provide profits; at the same time, provide good services to members, ensure that merchants provide services and discounts to members, allow consumers to make profits, and increase members’ card holdings and credit card swiping rates. At the same time, we will do a good job in follow-up data mining and provide more value-added services; 4. Technical advantages of Yikayi Merchant Alliance Platform:
(1) Multiple point schemes: It can support computer POS, mobile POS, wireless POS, QR code POS and other points points, and merchants can also mix them to reduce costs; (2) Mobile POS points: Smartphone Android version points system, merchants can use their own mobile phones to earn points for members, which greatly reduces operators' investment in hardware equipment.
(3) Points pre-sale mode: supports the points pre-sale mode, that is, merchants purchase points first and then purchase them from the operator after using them, reducing the risk of repayment of the project; (4) Small call center: automatically identifies the identity of the calling member, displays member points and historical consumption, and can record calls; after hanging up, it can also notify members via text message, highlighting technology.
(5) Member recommendation: Member recommendation earns points, and the recommender can get a certain proportion of points when the recommended person consumes (SMS message notifies the recommender), which can realize up to five levels of recommender functions; (6) Electronic coupons: Group electronic coupons are sent on member birthdays, holiday promotions, and store celebration promotions to increase merchant customer flow and increase merchant sales. At the same time, electronic coupons have the functions of being electronic, driving sales analysis after consumption, and being portable.
(7) Mobile membership card: The unique function of mobile membership card electronically stores traditional cards on members’ mobile phones. Members do not need to carry the card, they can just take out their mobile phones when swiping the card. At the same time, you can also check points, consumption records, surrounding merchants, surrounding discounts, etc. on the mobile membership card terminal.
WeChat membership card: Customers can register as a member by scanning the merchant's QR code, which greatly increases the number of members; at the same time, the membership card information can be stored in WeChat and can be queried at any time.
(8) Merchant discounts: Different merchants offer different discounts to alliance cards. The software can flexibly set merchants’ discounts for membership cards; it can also provide different discounts and points rebates based on the consumption of different products.
(9) Points ratio: Merchants in different industries can set different points ratios, and the software automatically calculates points based on the consumption amount and points ratio to facilitate settlement of commissions; (10) Product management: not only records the points value, but also records the product details consumed by members in detail, and the data analysis is more in-depth and detailed; (11) SMS notification: After a member earns points from a merchant's consumption, the system automatically sends an SMS notification to prevent merchants from not giving points or giving less points, which not only protects the interests of members, but also enables supervision of merchants; (12) Stored value consumption: members deposit money first and then consume, and then settle with the merchant after consumption, which increases the operator's reserve fund; the operator can authorize merchants to recharge members, and can authorize merchants to recharge the amount, reducing recharge risks; (13) Platform integration: It can be integrated with the operator's website to enable members to log in to the website to check consumption and points; it can also provide online display of gift redemption, online member redemption of gifts, and online recharge functions; (14) Report analysis: It has a powerful report analysis function, with a total of 10 major categories and more than 60 sub-category analysis reports, providing favorable analysis tools for your big data mining.
(15) Points settings: Double/multiple points on members’ birthdays, double points on special membership days, which can drive member consumption; (16) Online recharge: When members recharge, they can recharge by paying cash on site or online payment; (17) Rich experience: 6 years of customer implementation experience, and has built a mature and stable operating platform for many alliances.
One Card Easy Merchant Alliance Platform Multiple POS Terminals:
Computer POS Mobile POS Wireless POS QR code POS Computer POS installation software, connect card reader Mobile POS (Android), 3G smartphone, GPRS networking, swipe QR code Wireless POS GPRS networking, swipe card/enter mobile phone number to identify members, thermal printing QR code POSGPRS/network cable networking, swipe magnetic card/IC card/mobile QR code membership card, receipt printing, touch screen, thermal printing 5. Detailed introduction of various solutions:
(a) Software solution based on networked computers (b) Technical solution based on mobile phone POS (c) Technical solution based on handheld POS (d) Technical solution based on QR code POS (e) If you need a detailed solution for mixed technical solutions with multiple methods, please contact us. Yikayi will develop suitable operation ideas for you based on multiple implementation cases in the field of merchant alliances and combined with your specific situation! For more details, please call: 0755-22310521.
