By Chris Lee

Two of the most familiar retail brands on the UK high street are clothing stores Oasis and Karen Millen. When Oasis trialled mobile gift vouchers and found that online purchases of SMS-based (text message) gift vouchers outsold more traditional plastic vouchers by a ratio of three to one, sister company Karen Millen also decided to implement its own SMS gift voucher system.

New Media Knowledge caught up with Andy Tudor, Technical Development Manager for Aurora Fashions – the parent company of Oasis and Karen Millen – to learn how to implement a successful SMS gift voucher strategy.

Just give us a quick overview on how SMS gift vouchers work

A consumer can purchase a SMS gift voucher from a transactional micro site. This voucher is sent to a friend or colleague at a scheduled point in time with a friendly message (e.g. Happy Birthday) via text message. Each voucher contains a unique voucher code. This voucher code is entered into the point of sale as a tender (payment). If the consumer has any balance left on their voucher after purchasing their goods they receive a new voucher from the retailer also via SMS.

What convinced you to trial SMS gift vouchers with Oasis?

We live in a world where the mobile device is becoming central to everyone’s everyday lives. Engagement through the mobile phone is becoming ever more important. The SMS gift vouchers ticked a number of critical boxes for a retailer. The SMS gift voucher has the following key properties for a retailer:

a)     Online to offline: Enables consumers to send gift vouchers from an online environment without the need to wait for the postman

b)     Cost effective: Reduces the cost of the gift voucher services as we don’t have the production cost of the paper and plastics

c)      Immediacy: The consumer can engage immediately with Oasis, they don’t have to wait for delivery

d)     Customer demographic: Mobile is the perfect medium for our consumer demographic

Why do you think SMS gift vouchers have proven such a hit for consumers? Why do they outsell ‘physical’ (paper/plastic) vouchers?

The service is so simple to use, it works immediately and is easy for the consumer to understand. Today’s consumer is all about “now” and the SMS gift voucher supplies this.

Do you think people are getting used to buying each other ‘virtual’ presents, such as SMS gift vouchers?

Yes, I do. People talk constantly on their mobile devices, they addition of a value to those communications is the natural next step.

What were the key challenges when implementing the system and how did you overcome them?

The key challenge is around the redemption of the SMS gift vouchers through the point of sale systems. Eagle Eye Solutions and BT Expedite made this component work in a seamless manner for us. Our Point of Sale systems from BT Expedite were integrated the Eagle Eye Solutions Mobile Gift Voucher service in a matter of weeks and provides the stable, secure trading environment we require.

What are your top tips for other companies thinking of running SMS gift voucher schemes?

The mobile voucher solution is an exciting extension to the selling channel experience. The results have shown that there is a consumer demand for this channel to engage with their retailers. As a retailer it is our duty to allow our customers to engage through whatever channel they require. People talk about “multichannel” – well, multichannel should be re-written to say “whatever channel the consumer wants”.