BrandCode
LOYALTY SYSTEM, USER ENGAGEMENT - 2015 | BRANDCODE
BrandCode is the ultimate mobile app that enables consumers to scan any label in the supermarket to access a wealth of information, up-to-date promotions, fuss-free e-contests and to also be a part of an exciting loyalty programme.
Background
Our client has their own warehouse and distribution center for supermarkets and chemist stores, majority based in Malaysia. They often had friends, peers and clients asking them about the details of each products they are selling; e.g. who's the manufacturer, is it safe to consume, what is the nutritional value and what can each products be used for. This brought them an idea to work together with their partners to centralise everything into one app. Some of the feedbacks they received:
User’s Pain Points
1. “I can’t keep in track of the promotions happening in all the supermarkets and chemists, it’s so hard to compare prices”
- There are a lot of promotions going on in supermarkets and chemists, but most people are not aware of it.
2. “Aiya, I could have redeemed a freebies as I always buy this product every week.”
- Which also leads to missed opportunities to get loyalty points
3. “There’s too much loyalty card, I don’t know which one to bring and or which one is tied to a phone number”
- Too much scattered loyalty systems
4. “It’s time consuming and hard to research and compare product ingredients, usage or food nutritions! All these information come from different companies and places. Not sure which one is reliable”
⁃ There is no centralised place for users to look at detailed product info like nutrients, ingredients, manufacturers and directions to use a product and causes user to spend a lot of time on researching products
App Flow & Thought Process
The app flow is based on these key requirements:
1. Loyalty Points
2. Scan product barcode to browse info
3. Find store promotions
4. Earn & Redeem Rewards (via contests and uploading receipts)
Initial Designs
The first iteration of the design has prominent white space to allow breathing space for the eyes.
First Design Iteration: White Design
The idea of the first iteration was to give prominent white space to allow breathing space for the eyes, especially because BrandCode has a lot of items and text information inside the app. Customers didn't like it because it was too white and clean; not the type of design they are used to look at in 2015, thus leading to this iteration being archived.
Final Design Iteration: Green BrandCode Design
This is the finalised design for BranCode. Along the way, there are also iterations and additional functions to the flow, for example "Referral Code", completed set of redemption flow that includes "Wallet", "Redemption Hall", list of outlets that has double points as well as enhanced "Upload Receipt" flow.
Afterthought
There are a lot of rooms for improvements. Here are some of the them:
1. Multilingual Settings
There is no option to switch to other languages due to time limitations and budget. This caused some texts to have two languages in one paragraph
Possible solution: provide a tab in CMS where staffs can input a translated version for each essential languages (Tamil, Chinese, English, Bahasa), as well as a page in the consumer app for user to change the preferred language.
2. Points are given manually by BrandCode staff
User has to upload their receipts to be checked manually by BrandCode Staffs. The staffs will then read the list of items one by one and award the points accordingly. On top of that, user can only upload not more than 5 receipts at one time to avoid repetition and overcrowding at the backend and write the receipt descriptions manually. We did not implement OCR or automation at that point of time as the technology was not reliable.
Possible Solution: OCR nowadays are very advanced. It allows stitching of receipts, auto-correction on distortions as well as automatically recognising the scanned letters.
3. Maintaining balance between Rewards and Loyalty Points
The volume of people earning the points are more than the number of rewards provided by BrandCode, naturally causing a lot of people to complain that there are not enough rewards to redeem even after collecting bazillion points in the app.
Possible Solution: Figure out the correct proportion of supply & demand, product owner has to actively work together and seek partnership with their merchants.
4. Navigation not always visible
The current navigation does not stick to all the pages. Along the way I understood how important navigation is for apps that allows user to browse deep. User feels lost whenever they go out of the app and come back in when the navigation is gone. They will then kill the app and restart the whole searching process.
Possible Solution: implement sticky navigation so user can always navigate back to the main tabs.
5. Bluetooth Beacons
We actually implemented Bluetooth Beacons into the app to support BrandCode occasional roadshows. The idea was to send push notifications to users who are in the vicinity, informing them of the ongoing roadshow and freebies or points they can get by participating. The problem was, it was not common for mobile phone users of 2015 - 2016 to turn on their Bluetooth all the time. Bluetooth security and battery was not optimised for Bluetooth to be on at all times, causing people to be wary and turned off their Bluetooth most of the time. This results to them not receiving the special push notifications.
Possible Solution: Re-optimise his technology as the user landscape has shifted. Bluetooth security and power usage are optimised and reinforced as Bluetooth wearables are trending. People turns on their Bluetooth all the time nowadays.
Fun Facts
Like any other product, BrandCode has their own type of quirky customers. Working closely with our client's customer support allowed us to get some insights of our special customers. Here are some of the most notable ones:
