This groundbreaking project, which leverages the latest generation of Olivetti cash registers, allows Miroglio Fashion “Vestebene Factory Store” customers to add customer loyalty points, check their balance and receive their awards on their mobile phones
The Miroglio Fashion company, through its Vestebene Factory Store-branded outlets, has partnered with Telecom Italia to launch Italy's first nationwide customer fidelity initiative based on the mobile network which allows the use of mobile phones as normal fidelity cards. This innovative service allows customers to collect loyalty points via NFC technology-enabled phones, check their balance directly on the display, and receive their rewards via text message.
The initiative – which leverages Olivetti's latest touchscreen cash registers – is being rolled out at five Vestebene-Factory Stores chain outlets, before being extended to the chain's eighty sales outlets across Italy.
Miroglio Fashion customers will be getting cellphones with built-in NFC (Near Field Communication) radio technology. Special software application installed on the TIM phone SIM cards "communicates" with NFC-technology reader-equipped Olivetti cash registers, allowing customers to top-up their loyalty points simply by bringing their mobile phone close to the cash register. Customers can also check how many points they have on their phone display, and no longer need to bring their loyalty card with them. The Miroglio Fashion data-processing centre, which is connected via Telecom Italia broadband to the cash registers, automatically registers new purchases and then sends out text messages to customers with their points totals and any discount vouchers to which they are entitled.
In future, customers will also receive text information messages on the arrival of new collections and the start of sales, and be able to access Mobile Payment services.
Thanks to this new system, the Vestebene Factory Store chain will gradually eliminate its paper-based management of discount vouchers and fidelity cards, and achieve administration cost savings.
After rolling out an NFC-technology based mobile ticketing system nationwide, this initiative confirms Telecom Italia’s commitment to developing innovative ICT services that benefit individuals and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.
“We’re particularly pleased with this project,” says Giuseppe Maurizio, CEO of Miroglio Fashion, "because first and foremost it brings together two companies that are premium leaders in their respective industries. Furthermore, the project underlines our keenness to innovate, and our business's commitment to 'stamping out waste'."
Milan, June 29, 2009