The loyalty program sector has been facing a myriad of problems ever since its inception. These shortcomings have rendered a potentially profitable industry stunted. Among the issues besetting this sector are, “low levels of activity and redemption, on the customer side. And “high costs associated with integration and the lack of interoperability and intrinsic value of the points collected” on the brand side. All these, it can be said, stem from the overarching problem of fragmentation.

One might be hard-pressed to understand why an initiative that seeks to reward its customers has mushroomed into a USD100 billion problem. For the uninitiated this might come as a surprise, however, for those who are au fait with how the system works, it stands to reason that this degree of wastage would be the case. If we look at how the loyalty program sector works this will become clearer. Under this system, customers accumulate what are called loyalty rewards from specific brands and entities as a sort of compensation for supporting that particular brand in a number of ways. As I hinted above, on the surface, this sounds great. Which begs the question:

Why would there be wastage when all people have to do is merely collect their rewards?

The reason is that under this present system, customers cannot liquidate their rewards because they are often tied to a single brand. And while this might work well with a store someone uses frequently, the fact is that customers will not earn much, if anything at all, if the store is not frequented by the customer(s). And hence the loyalty points go unused. Therein lies the wastage. USD 100 billion is an astronomical sum and was slated to keep on rising. That was before qiibee emerged to plug this huge leakage that is taking place.

What is qiibee?

Before delving further into this piece, it is important to tell what qiibee is. This is a blockchain based loyalty program that is revolutionizing how brands and consumers interact with their loyalty programs. As a decentralized ecosystem, it will remove the “central data authority” and in so doing, connect all players in the loyalty market and thus integrate a fragmented sector. The result is that this will lead to more efficiency and thus enhance the experience of the customer and plug the wastage that is taking place in the market.

But how exactly will qiibee do this and what will be the benefits?

Qiibee is doing this through creating a revolution in that sector. The maxim in the crypto-space is, invest in the train, and buy the train station. qiibee would fall under the latter; for not only is it changing the loyalty market, the core of its business model is that it is offering a platform “on which every brand can build their very own loyalty application.” Building a product from scratch is technical and too expensive for most brands. This is where they allow for integration; for, “by giving brands the ability to build their programs on the same foundation,” they make it possible for these entities as “well as customers to engage with one another across the ecosystem.”

The reader will recall that we said the main problem with the loyalty program sector is that it is fragmented. This defragmentation will, of course, make, on one hand, claiming the rewards from the program easier for the customer, and on the brand side, ensure that customers remain engaged with their products. If we were to get behind the numbers, one is almost certain that the USD 100 billion is merely a drop in the bucket. What about customers who just stop engaging with a brand because they are not reaping any rewards from engaging with it? How much has been lost in potential sales? Food for thought.

Autonomy, Transparency and Experience

Both Brand and Customer have a lot to gain from what qiibee is doing. Among them:

Freedom for Customers

One of the hallmarks of the blockchain is transparency, something that hardly exists under our present system. With qiibee, however, customers “have transparency over their own loyalty programs and all the other programs on the platform.” As such, they will be able to claim, gain, barter, and “send or receive loyalty tokens on the platform.” An added bonus is that because the various loyalty tokens are backed by the qiibee token, (the currency of the ecosystem), “customers will be able to trade them for FIAT or other cryptocurrencies.”

Just to elaborate on the aforementioned point. One will recall that much of the customer rewards go unused because of the inability to liquidate them. The following point shows just how much of an asset qiibee token will be to users of this technology. At the expense of sounding like a broken record, it will simply make life easier for everyone, both brands, and customers. Granted, on the surface, this might sound a bit too fantastic, however, one is obligated to add that this is no fly by night project. It is already well underway. Actually, quiiee has been up and running since 2015, and it is also scaling rapidly and have already teamed up with many brands. This means people will no longer be bogged down with having to pledge allegiance to one brand or having to feel that their hands are tied because the once fragmented loyalty program world is now under the qiibee umbrella.

The Wonders of Fluidity

Because brands will be able to run their own loyalty programs on the blockchain, they will be able to keep full control. This stems from the fact that brands can “build their desired application and to benefit from the crypto and blockchain technology, without having to think about the integration.” This is where the genius of the qiibee integration initiative comes into play because it makes it possible for the “different loyalty program owners to be compatible with each other.”

Accompanying this move also is the fluidity it offers. For example, brands have the choice of transferring “their loyalty application from off- to on-chain.” In doing this, they have the option of either making their own application or if they so desire, a brand could join “an existing multi-brand application.” This consolidation is beneficial to the customer because (s)he is able to claim “loyalty tokens from” a host of brands; a number that is limited by the number of brands that are on that particular platform.

But it does not end there for the brand. Let us be honest, the blockchain offers a steep learning curve, even for the initiated. For those who are not so tech savvy, this can be daunting. The likelihood of adopting this technology is almost nil if there is no support. This is why “qiibee will support them in this process in every aspect of their integration with the help of marketing agencies and the qiibee developer kit.”

A Use-Case scenario would be apt to convey the benefits of the qiibee ecosystem. We will call the subject Marques

Before qiibee:
Marquez shopped at his local store where he received great deals on everything, from household items to prescriptions. Being a part of the loyalty reward program he could get wonderful discounts when he accumulates enough points on their rewards program. He is happy with this arrangement and has remained loyal to that particular brand. Recently he received a promotion to work in a different city, which means his job takes him away for up to a week every month. Naturally, he has had to shop in this new area. Being the lover of deals that he is; Marquez signs up for membership with their brand. However, because these are different brands, the points he accumulated from one brand, cannot be used on the other and therefore it takes him a much longer time to collect rewards. At times, he doesn’t even collect the rewards and therefore adds to the USD 100 billion wastage that takes place in the sector.

Marquez switches to qiibee:
He relates this concern to his wife who tells him about qiibee. After doing his own research, he learns that it is possible, using their platform, to make purchases at any qiibee participating store. And because they are integrated, the points accumulation will happen faster than what he is now used to. Still a little skeptical, he signs up and seeks out stores that are integrated with qiibee in both areas; that is, where he works, and where he lives. Fortunately for him, the points accumulate faster than before, and hence, Marquez will continue to receive great rewards from shopping for his favorite items.

A few members of the qiibee team. From left to right--Gianluca Giancola Design & UX, Jacqueline Bieri Marketing & PR, Gabriele Giancola Sales & Partnerships.

The Team

A project is nothing without a good team. This group, which boasts a combined 16 years of experience in the loyalty space, has managed to maintain its core team, and is seeking to upgrade. In addition, close to 3/4 “of the team has been part of the foundation of a company before joining qiibee.” The extent of their company goes beyond that though. Perusing their roadmap, one was quite encouraged by what was found; 2015 to 2018 seems like a longtime for a roadmap, but this is usually a sign that the project is one with staying power. And wanting to share a piece of the pie, the team is offering an airdrop that starts in eleven days.

Additional Information

qiibee Website
qiibee WhitePaper
qiibee Telegram
qiibee Medium
qiibee Twitter
qiibee Facebook
qiibee Instagram
qiibee Linkedin
qiibee Google Plus

qiibee2018