Not all discount voucher facilities in POS software programs are the same it would seem. The experience we have in our own retail shops and the experiences we hear about from our customers are different to what others report with whether call discount vouchers in their software.
POS Solutions, a competitor of Tower Systems in the newsagency space has made claims about loyalty and discount vouchers which we challenge here in the interests of accuracy and robust competition.
At their company blog, POS Solutions publishes this:
Firstly i actually do not like discount vouchers as they are an incredibly costly programs, see here for numbers.
They link to an article of theirs from a year ago where they use a report from our software to claim that discount vouchers are expensive. There is no evidence in the Tower report or elsewhere to support their claim.
Our experience in our own retail businesses and the experiences reported to us others using our discount vouchers facilities is that they are not costly. We say POS Solutions makes the claim in a marketing effort to divert attention from a successful loyalty program.
It is important to note that the Tower Systems discount vouchers approach is sophisticated and exclusive to us. The calculations in our software are secured and encrypted. While we have no copyright over the term discount vouchers, we do have copyright protection over our code and protect this with care for us and our softwares.
The POS Solutions website and blog publishes this statement:
Additionally what type of a person will you be attracting, those that like perpetual discounts. I have seen a report that people whose first purchase is induced by a price reduction are 50% less likely to want to make a second purchase. This I can believe as what your discount is doing is attracting consumers hunting for a bargain, this is scarcely prone to instil shop commitment.
The evidence is that discount vouchers attract a valuable shopper delivering bonus margin dollars at the high GPO end of the range offered in the business.
They refer to a report but no link – leaving the reader to question the source of the report.
POS also publishes this about discount vouchers:
Also it has no chance of reaching those people that do not buy in your store in the first place. If they have never ever purchased something in your store, just how will you provide them with a voucher?
This statement demonstrates that POS Solutions has not researched the marketing opportunities in the Tower Systems discount vouchers facilities.
POS has previously stated that it offers discount vouchers. This was published around the time we released our facilities. In recent times they have taken to criticising discount vouchers. In the meantime, our discount voucher offering delivers for newsagents using them commercial benefits which we say provide them a terrific commercial advantage.
In the Tower software there are several loyalty options which can be used separately or together. Our discount vouchers facilities are unique to our software. They are a key factor in driving double digit sales growth and double digit gross profit growth.
