Consumer Promotions, Technology, Trends

Give your customer promotions an edge in 2018: The top five consumer trends for your customer promotions

Technology is evolving the way brands interact, communicate, and engage with customers.

Over 2018, technology will continue to play a major influence in the way customers expect to be rewarded and how they choose to redeem them.

Here are the five key consumer trends we predict you’ll see in 2018, all with a focus on technology and its connectivity to global markets:

Our top five trends to look out for:

1. Online payment platforms and real-time payment solutions

Brands and consumers alike will choose real-time rewards and payment solutions that are fast and easy to use.

Virtual Visa, digital retail gift cards, PayPal and Pay with Google are favoured by customers for their accessibility and speed, and are preferred for brands due to their ease in stock control and pay as you need nature.

 2. The Amazon effect

Now that Amazon has launched in the Australian ecommerce market, their impact on traditional bricks and mortar retailers and online retailers is expected to play out over 2018.

According to Roy Morgan Research Institute, in Australia there are already 68 retail brands sharing more than 20% of their customers with Amazon. With the threat of customers jumping ship, brands will need to find new and innovative ways to retain and engage customers to stay in the game.

An example that we’ve seen in previous years is the impact of Black Friday, an annual day of sales and activations traditionally exclusive to the USA. Now emails and social feeds across the globe are flooded with offers leaving local brands no choice, but to think big and take part.

3. Cloud and real-time connection technology and software

 Advances in cloud-based and real-time technology solutions will continue to give customers more meaningful experiences.

Real-time rewards, used by brands like Telstra, connect to CRMs (Customer Relationship Management systems) in real-time to give customers a tailored activation.

Brands can use the technology and real-time rewards to gain enhanced customer data and analytics.

4. Apps, Apps, Apps!

Apps will be huge for  in 2018, as more and more brands launch bigger and better apps for customer promotions.

According to Apple, in the last seven days of 2017, App Store purchases accounted for more than US $890 million.

At Edge, we’ve found leveraging apps like Shazam and Autocheck gives our clients a way to deliver innovative and interactive customer reward solutions in a relevant and cutting edge way.

5. Connecting to a Global Market

 With technology at everyone’s fingertips, the exciting customer promotions in 2018 will be the ones that harness innovations in technology to touch all markets.

  • Integrate CRM into promotions for tailored end-to-end real-time solutions
  • Leverage social media technologies, a space where customers are fast becoming global brand advocates
  • Put emphasis on mobile connectivity including apps, purpose built websites and optimisation
  • Use white label platforms to deliver timely, relevant promotions
  • Focus on collecting end-to-end data insights worldwide, for stronger incites on your customer, product and strategy

This digital mix is expected to help grow sales and lead to strong customer engagement.

If you’re looking to launch an innovative customer rewards promotion in 2018, Edge can help support your brand or agency with its innovative end-to-end promotional platforms.

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Michael Jess

Michael Jess

Commercial Director at Edge Pri
Starting off as one of Edge's Customer Service employees whilst completing his degree at Deakin University many-many moons ago, Michael (or MJ) now leads the sales team. With one finger on the pulse of the many promotions in market and just another flight away from a client meeting, Michael has experienced promotions from every aspect and understands what makes a great promotion, great!

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