Morleys deploys Squirrel Loyalty at new Bexleyheath store

This article is brought to you by Retail Technology Review: Morleys deploys Squirrel Loyalty at new Bexleyheath store.

Morleys Stores is the first to implement Futura's new Loyalty Card solution signing up over 9,000 customers in the first 15 days of operation at its brand new department store in Bexleyheath, which opened in April.

The 40,000 sq ft shopping space, a former BHS site in south east London, is the ninth store for the independent department store group, which has standardised on Futura's EPOS and retail management solution since 2008.

Squirrel Loyalty provides Morleys Bexleyheath with a real-time, points-based loyalty card solution enabling customers to earn and redeem points at departments across the store, with the benefit of personalised offers and exclusive invitations and promotions.

Fully integrated with Futura's EPOS technology Squirrel Loyalty is expected to be deployed to other stores in the Group starting with Elys of Wimbledon, once trials at the Bexleyheath shop are completed.

Squirrel Loyalty has been designed to provide a flexible, easily customised solution, ensuring incentives and rewards are consistent across the business with up-to-date customer and purchase data available in real-time for analysis and email marketing promotions, based on customer preferences and purchasing data.

MD David Hordle for the Bexleyheath store commented: "The new store is performing really well and the £3m investment and 4 ½ months planning in the run up to our grand opening are clearly paying dividends. Support from our retail technology partner Futura has been invaluable and take up for the new loyalty card solution, the first in the group, is already exceeding expectations."

Importantly Squirrel Loyalty is designed to make account creation and card management simple and straightforward with minimal head office manpower required. New accounts or cards are pre-loaded into FuturaERS allowing fast customer sign up and account creation at the till with comprehensive email and postcode validation. At the Bexleyheath store a new customer accounts kiosk using a tablet computer has helped queue busting to manage initial loyalty card demand.

Customers in turn can earn points straightaway and till receipts are printed with the points balance, points earned and points redeemed. In addition ten optional message lines can be printed to include further information or promotional messaging.

Point rules for Squirrel can be set at item level or by product hierarchy; points can be earned on total spend and 'double points' promotions, for example, can be run on specific lines or departments. Multiple account types to reward different types of customer spending can also be created.

Other features include a Points Expiry function, an API for simple integration to 3rd party applications for example CRM, marketing and e-commerce platforms, plus real-time receipt text marketing and a detailed Head Office performance dashboard. Morleys for example are already using the API in Squirrel Loyalty to link with their partner Redfish for customer data mining.

Tina Royall Marketing Director at Futura Retail Solutions says: "We are delighted to be continuing our long and close relationship with Morleys Stores. The right brand mix, great customer service and a laser focus on the local community is clearly a winning formula for the group. The rollout of Futura to Bexleyheath brings the total number of tills across the Morleys estate to around 270."

With total group revenues expected to top £120 million the Bexleyheath store joins Camp Hopson of Newbury, Elys of Wimbledon, Roomes of Upminster, James Selby in Islington, plus Bodgers of Ilford, Pearsons of Enfield and Morleys of Brixton and Tooting, all under the Morleys Group brand.