Tag: new zealand

Vmob teams up with New Zealand’s largest loyalty program.

The partnership formed between mobile marketing company Vmob and loyalty program Fly Buys, will result in a mobile platform that will be geared toward targeting the personal preferences of smartphone users who will be sent promotions, offers and sales opportunities based on what most appeals to them.

New mobile platform will aim to give customers more of what they want.

“One of the criticisms I often get from customers is, ‘You know a lot about me, why do you keep sending me things that aren’t relevant?” said Fly Buys owner and chief of Loyalty New Zealand, Stephen England-Hall. He said that the new platform will give Fly Buys the ability to better target the needs and desires of customers instead of offering them products that are intended for a wider and general group of consumers.

In a few months, the mobile marketing platform will be ready to go. The information it uses will be based on the customers past shopping habits and their location, which will allow it to send them promotions and offers that are relevant.

England-Hall stated that with the partnership and mobile combined, the company will finally be able to eliminate what is irrelevant and can be more specific with targeting. He also mentioned that even though the new platform will use the personal data of consumers in terms of their previous shopping trends and location, this will only make Fly Buys work with greater diligence to ensure private customer information is protected.

Many consumers worry that mobile marketing is becoming too intrusive.

According to England-Hall, people have concerns regarding mobile marketing and its invasiveness. Due to this reason, if they feel that a company is becoming too intrusive they will “delete you”. Therefore it is very important for marketing to be done with greater care and respect than it has been in the past.

Vmob, a cloud-based company from New Zealand, has achieved international success via partnerships with big name clients including Telkom Indonesia, and McDonald’s Netherlands. However, despite this success, the chief executive and founder of Vmob, Scott Bradley, says that it is wonderful to have formed a strong partnership with New Zealand’s largest loyalty program. 1.4 million active households are part of the Fly Buys loyalty program, which is approximately 74% of all the households in the country.

Mobile marketing is key to a successful shopping experience for both the seller and buyer. Bradley said, “We need to turn shopping back to a service-oriented culture rather than a transactional one, and service comes from knowing your customer.”

Test launch of mobile commerce platform begins in New Zealand

Vodafone, a global telecommunications organization, is one of several companies in its industry that have been showing aggressive interest in mobile commerce. Consumers are becoming more involved in mobile technology, leading to a growing demand for a more convenient, tech-savvy form of commerce. Vodafone has been working to position itself as a leader in the mobile commerce sector by meeting this demand with its SmartPass platform. The company has recently begun a pilot test for the platform in Auckland, New Zealand, before an international launch later this year.

SmartPass leverages the power of NFC technology

The SmartPass is based on NFC technology and leverages NFC in order to facilitate mobile payments. The technology is quite common in the mobile commerce sector, forming the backbone for the majority of other platforms that could be considered competitors to SmartPass. The platform was developed with the help of Visa, which also has a vested interest in mobile commerce. The pilot launch of the platform is meant to expose consumers to mobile commerce and provide merchants with an effective way to engage mobile consumers.

NFC-enabled devices still rare among consumers

Vodafone expects the pilot launch to last at least two months, hoping to solve some of the undiscovered issues that the SmartPass may have during that time. The company is aware of the low availability of NFC-enabled devices in the consumer market, but does not anticipate this to be a significant problem. SmartPass, like other NFC-based mobile commerce platforms, can only be used by NFC-enabled devices. These devices are becoming more common, but many consumers have shied away from mobile commerce because they are unwilling to purchase a new, expensive smartphone or tablet just to be able to make a mobile payment at a physical store.

SmartPass to function as mobile wallet

The SmartPass is not only able to facilitate mobile payments, of course, as it is also designed to function as a sort of digital wallet. The platform is capable of storing a variety of financial information that could be used by consumers at any given time. Like other platforms, SmartPass is also expected to keep track of special offers that consumers receive from merchants and the brands they are interested in.