USA Technologies, a leader of wireless, cashless payment and M2M/IoT solutions for small-ticket, self-serve retailing industries, has expanded its proprietary MORE.™ rewards and loyalty program to partners nationwide, providing access to custom rewards and discount programs for all 333,000 locations connected to the ePort Connect service.
The loyalty program was originally designed to provide USAT customers the ability to offer custom rewards and discount offers for products purchased at their ePort-enabled locations for loyalty, repeat business, and a greater understanding of their consumers’ purchasing preferences. Customers would opt into the service and have the ability to set their own program criteria.
As a result of the nationwide expansion of the MORE. program, the benefits extend to consumer packaged goods companies, retailers, and other consumer brands that will now have the ability to partner with USA Technologies to leverage its large footprint of acceptance points to promote their brand, build loyalty, incentivize purchasing, and generate new revenue streams through consumer product promotions, offers, advertising and discounts.
Maeve McKenna Duska, Senior Vice President of Marketing at USA Technologies, explained to Loyalty360 what prompted the expansion of the loyalty program.
“There were two main objectives in expanding the program,” she explained to Loyalty360. “We wanted to serve the consumer, who is looking for a seamless experience and wants to use a single loyalty program at a vending machine or any self-service retail location without having to sign up for 10+ loyalty programs just because it’s a different vending company. The consumer doesn’t care who the vendors are. They just want simplicity or it’s not going to work. In addition, we wanted to make it easier for the businesses we partner with. As the program got a larger footprint, it made sense to open up nationwide, giving partners more exposure to the consumers doing business in and around our 3330,000 locations and creating a simple program that would help achieve that.”
McKenna Duska said feedback from actual consumers created some of the impetus behind the loyalty program expansion.
“It was really a direct response to our customers’ needs,” she said. “Our customers needed a program that was seamless to the consumer. Ease of use encourages actual participation. And we uncovered some challenges as the program gained momentum that fueled the adaptation, such as consumers not understanding why they couldn’t use their MORE. card at MORE.- branded locations (it was because different operators were operating the program at those unique locations). And we also uncovered some opportunities, including the ability to provide wide reach to payments and CPG company partners through promotions and product or service information pushed out through our program. That only became really valuable to our partners when the program was expanded nationally. And more value for our partners feeds more value to the consumers and customers in the program. “
McKenna Duska noted that the majority of customers locations are referred to as ‘closed’ locations (e.g. schools, universities, businesses, military bases.
“A repeat customer is one who visits the location on a weekly basis or more,” she said. “The expanded program should see that grow. Currently, only 9% of consumers use a vending machine several times a week (NAMA-Harris Interactive Survey). The goal is always to draw new customers in and keep them coming back. When we partnered with Softcard in 2014, prior to its acquisition by Google, we ran a national loyalty program that encouraged repeat purchases through a Buy 4 Get 1 Free vending program. During the promotional period, we saw Softcard transactions increase by 300%. That proved to us that consumers will change behavior when you give them a reason or reward. It really was the first time that a loyalty program had been rolled out to a market like vending before. Previously, there was no way to measure a loyal customer in the small ticket market, or to know who might be buying from you, what, and how often. It was an anonymous transaction. Now, we give our customers the ability to track consumer behavior and incentivize. So the definition will continue to evolve as this niche grows, but the evolution has really just begun. We believe the MORE. program provides an important tool for our customers but also for payments, products and service partners to get in front of this large population of consumers in many markets where interaction is happening on a daily basis, and impact how and what they buy.”
McKenna Duska said the loyalty program launched August 2013.
“The program adoption has been less than expected, but in part, due to the limitations the expanded program looks to address,” she said. “Rolling out nationwide opens up to any consumer who lives/works around a machine regardless of whom the operator is, rather than having to join several incarnations of the program due to different operators. We expect that the nationwide expansion, with the seamless and streamlined experience, in addition to the value that we hope partners will bring, will increase adoption exponentially over the next several years.