Redeem and transfer loyalty points through a blockchain with Gabrotech

bonanza-kreep (66)in #gabrotech • 6 years ago (edited)

Loyalty programs – discounts, coupons, free merchandise and special offers – may seem like a small thing when their rewards are considered on an individual basis. But they sure can add up, for both the customers who receive them and the companies that spend a lot of money and effort on arranging them. Around the world and across many different industries (from travel to retail), the value of loyalty reward market is counted in the hundreds of billions of US dollars.

However, only around half of all loyalty program memberships see any active use. Considering that the entire point of those programs is customer retention, this is very unsatisfactory. The truth is that many of those programs are deeply inflexible and customers do not find much use for what they have to offer. Loyalty points can be difficult to redeem in a really effective and appealing way.

https://gabrotech.io/

Gabrotech.io is a project that aims to fix the loyalty market by bringing it together on a blockchain platform. Making its services available to merchants and customers alike, it hopes to reinvent the way loyalty points are spent.

What is Gabrotech's solution?

Gabrotech will allow businesses to issue loyalty reward points through their own channels in a distributed points ledger, using APIs to integrate their own software with it. They will be able to issue Merchant Tokens under their own brands that could be redeemed on the chain through smart contracts, allowing customers to claim whatever rewards they have earned with their points. Gabrotech will also support points from existing platforms being redeemed off the chain. Additionally, merchants will have access to an O2O analytics platform, tracking the effectiveness of their campaigns and the behaviour of participants. They will use the Gabro token (GBO) to pay for the platform's services.

For customers, the central point of Gabrotech's offering is its Gabro Digital Wallet 2.0 app, which will store loyalty points from different programs, Merchant Tokens, GBO and a number of popular cryptocurrencies. It will allow users to manage all their loyalty points from participant programs in one place, with options like converting them into GBO and then to points in different programs, transferring them to other users or setting redemption targets for notifications. A multi-currency conversion engine will enable the rapid exchange of cryptocurrencies for fiat or other cryptocurrencies at their current market value, with the help of the platform's liquidity pool.

The wallet will have extensive security features, including biometrics. It will be tied to a prepaid Gabrotech debit card that will enable deposits, withdrawals and payments with various stored currencies. Users who hold 10,000 GBO will be eligible to receive limited issue Standard cards that will offer 0,1% GBO rewards for every purchase and access to shopping and travel insurance offers. Those who hold 25,000 GBO could receive a Premium card with 0,5% rewards.

What makes this project worthwhile to the stakeholders?

Loyalty points within this system will be much more valuable for the customers who receive them. Instead of waiting for some possibly quite rare opportunity to use them, they will be able to move points from one program to another, convert them into actual currencies (including the fully tradeable GBO) or gift or sell them to other users. They will also find it much easier to track and use them, and should retain control over what personal information they may have to contribute to the programs. But businesses would win too, as their loyalty programs will be both vastly more effective and easier to organise and manage. They would merely need to use the tools provided by Gabrotech instead of developing their own. Potentially, existing loyalty program operators will be able to make use of this network too.

The Gabrotech team consists of seasoned finance professionals and blockchain enthusiasts with a good understanding of the loyalty market's problems. It has already cultivated a number of strategic partnerships in different fields, including Deloitte, Espeo Blockchain, Adpost and China Unicom. Its marketing strategy involves targeting cryptocurrency owners first, drawing them in with the help of secondary services such as rapid conversion and a physical card, and then gradually expanding the user base from there.

https://gabrotech.io/

ICO details

An active loyalty ecosystem

No one wins with loyalty programs whose effectiveness can be as low as 10% in certain sectors. But companies that offer them lose the most. Not only do they fail to retain customers, but they also waste a lot of money and effort on something that ends up being useless. If those loyalty points had more uses, however, a lot of waste would be prevented and a lot of value would be liberated. Customer interaction with any of the companies that join such a system could be greatly expanded, as they would have much better incentives.

Gabrotech's approach could thus bring about a genuine revolution in loyalty marketing. Of course, to get there it will need the acceptance and active cooperation of a sufficiently large amount of popular merchant businesses. It will also need early support from users to get its ecosystem off the ground. But in theory, at least, its model seems like it should appeal to both sides of the market enough to be worth a try.