A Summer Internship Project Report on

Strategic trategic sales in retail closed user group on Atos Worldline orldline project

at P Plada Infotech, Bangalore

Submitted by Bhagesh Kumar Register No.: 1221208

Under the Guidance of Dilipchandra S Professor (Marketing) Christ University Institute of Management

Institute of Management Christ University University, Bangalore MBA 2012-2014

DECLARATION
I, Bhagesh Kumar hereby declare that the project report entitled Strategic sales in retail closed user group is a record of bonafide work/study carried out by me under the guidance of Prof. Dilipchandra S, Christ University Institute of Management (CUIM), Bangalore and Mr. Vishal Narvekar, South Head, strategic sales, Atos Worldline, Bangalore.

I also declare that this work has not been submitted for the award of any degree, Associate ship or Fellowship or any other title in this University or any other University.

Place: Bangalore Date:

Bhagesh Kumar Registration No.:1221208

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CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the report submitted by Bhagesh Kumar on title Strategic trategic sales in retail closed user group is record cord of bonafide work done by him during the academic year 2013-2014 2013 under my guidance and supervision in partial fulfillment of the req requirements uirements for the award of the degree of Master of Business Administration. This work has not been submitted for the award of any degree, Associate ship or Fellowship or any other title in this University or any other University.

Place: Bangalore Date:

Prof. Dilipchandra S

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CERTIFICATE FROM THE COMPANY

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ACKNOWLEGEMENT

I am indebted to many people who helped me accomplish this internship successfully.

First, I thank the Vice Chancellor Dr Fr Thomas C Matthew of Christ University for giving me the opportunity to do my summer internship project.

I thank Prof. Ghadially Zoher, Associate Dean, Fr Thomas T V, Director, Prof. C K T Chandrasekhara, Head-Administration and Prof Kshetragna CN, Head-Marketing of Christ University Institute of Management for their kind support.

I wish to take this opportunity to express my deep sense of gratitude to thank Mr. Vishal Narvekar, (South Head of Strategic Sales) for his invaluable guidance throughout my project. I sincerely thank Atos Worldline and Uphaar card for providing me with an opportunity to work in the Sales department of Plada Infotech to get an insight about corporate gifting and loyalty cards.

I thank Prof. Dilipchandra S, for his support and guidance during the course of my summer internship. I remember him with much gratitude for his patience and motivation, but for which I could not have submitted this work.

I thank my parents for their blessings and constant support, without which this summer internship would not have seen the light of day. Bhagesh Kumar, Register No: 1221208 v

PREFACE
Corporate gifts are used by business people to distribute among target audience and increase brand awareness. There are many unique corporate gifts that are used to meet the sales target. The world is moving at a very fast pace on a wide scale of modernity, technology and competition in business. The tough competition in business has given way to promotional products and corporate gifts for promoting, advertising and marketing business. Various researches on the subject verified the Paretos 80-20 principle which is 80% of the sales are because of the 20% of the customers/end user. Also, the cost of retaining an existing customer is vey less compared to the cost of attracting /acquiring a new customer, compelled the retailers to think about it. Hence, the concepts of loyalty card came into the existence and help the merchants to make their customers loyal. In this modern business scenario, corporate gifting in form of loyalty card or reward, hold a key place and influence the performance with plethora of benefits. The prime objective of unique corporate gifts holds the function of retaining existing customers, creating brand awareness, attracting new customers, reaching the global market, and maintaining longevity in companyclient relationship. Both the key players and small business people are looking out for new, stylish, innovative and unique business gifts so that they can attract more audience and enhance brand awareness along with increasing the sale and generating high revenue for the company. In this report, at giftdedo, the corporate gifting strategies are designed and implemented in such a way that merchants join us in order to enrich the experience of corporate gifting/loyalty programme and at the same time getting a sizable customer base which generates revenue and becomes a win-win situation for both the merchants as well as the clients.

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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The project was based on the purview of corporate gifting in terms of loyalty cards and rewards in Bangalore. The marketing & sales strategies were designed and executed to connect the merchants and the corporate customers using the website interface and gift card known as Giftdedo.com and Giftdedo card as well as customized loyalty card respectively. The idea was introduction of a flash card known as the giftdedo card along with the existing electronic data collection (EDC) customized cards having magnetic strips on them designed in order to capture each financial transaction details. Complete business and marketing package was offered to the merchant where in the corporate selling of the gift vouchers under listing, Best deals from the merchant in terms of special offers/discounts as well as providing the merchants a unique option of making their own customized cards or the retail closed user group (RCUG) which has many add on facilities such as daily management information system (MIS) reports, bulk short messaging services (SMS) facility, free electronic data collection (EDC) machine, call centre facility as well as loading different loyalty programs on the card which shall help in enhancing their business. The project started in April 2013 in Bangalore and sales strategies were formulated and executed in order to acquire merchants for any of the above mentioned services such as Best deals, Listing as well as the customized cards. Various researches on the subject verified the Paretos 80-20 principles i.e. 80% of the sales are because of the 20% of the customers (Srivastava, chetan, & G, 2011). Also the fact that the cost of retaining an existing customer is much less compared to the cost of attracting a new customer made the retailers to think about it. It was observed that through customer loyalty programs, merchants can get in touch with their top clients or customers throughout their association and can predict the customer behavior accurately which will help the merchant immensely to excel his business and generate profits. The databases of the merchants were prepared followed by making cold calls, sending business proposal and negotiation before the final closeout of the deal. Towards the end of the project, total of 50 deals were closed by me under the guidance and support of my mentor Prof. Dilipchandra S and corporate mentor Mr. Vishal Narvekar, South Head, strategic sales at Atos Worldline. vii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

DECLARATION.ii CERTIFICATEiii CERTIFICATE FROM THE COMPANY..iv ACKNOWLEDEMENT.v PREFACEvi EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.vii TABLE OF CONTENTSviii LIST OF CONVERTED MERCHANTS....x

CHAPTER I 1.0 Introduction1 1.1Background..1 1.2 Objective..2 1.3Purpose..2 CHAPTER II 2.0 About the company..3 2.1 Atos Worldline..3 2.2 Uphaar Cards ........5 CHAPTER III 3.0 Retail Market: India..7 CHAPTER IV 4.0 Loyalty Program..10 4.1Evolution of Loyalty Program12 viii

4.2 Developing, Implementing & Controlling an effective loyalty program..14 4.3 Loyalty card: local and international player CHAPTER V 5.0 About the product17 5.1 Program features21 5.2 Prepaid Program Workflow................25 CHAPTER VI 6.0 ANALYSIS..31 6.1PEST ANALYSIS.31 6.2 SWOT ANALYSIS..32 6.3 PORTERS FIVE FORCE ANALYSIS33 6.4 COMPETITOR ANALYSIS36 CHAPTER VII 7.0 General Sales Strategies.37 7.1 Specific Sales Strategies (CASE BY CASE)40. CHAPTER VIII 8.0 Customer feedback41 CHAPTER IX 9.0 Conclusion45 CHAPTER X 10.0 Recommendation...46 References .....47

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CHAPTER I

introduction

1. INTRODUCTION
Everyone values loyalty presidents, generals, and friends. Thats no less true for corporations. US companies spend $50 billion a year on loyalty programs. When done right, loyalty programs can generate as much as 20 percent of a companys profits.

Loyalty marketing: Customer loyalty and marketing is gaining importance and due importance and transformed into a discipline. Studies suggest that making new customer is expensive when compared to retaining existing customers. The discipline of customer loyalty marketing has been around for many years, but expansions from it merely being a model for conducting business to becoming a vehicle for marketing and advertising have made it omnipresent in consumer marketing organizations since the mid- to late-1990s. Loyalty marketing is an approach to marketing, based on strategic management, in which a company focuses on growing and retaining existing customers through incentives. Branding, product marketing and loyalty marketing all form part of the customer proposition the subjective assessment by the customer of whether to purchase a brand or not based on the integrated combination of the value they receive from each of these marketing disciplines. 1.1 Background: To create a solution for merchants for their daily payments convenience, increase footfalls of the customer, brand visibility for everyone involved in the ecosystem. The solution will help merchants in the following elements: Cash Management Change Management Prominent Branding of Merchant 1

Spends / Visits to Merchant Restaurant (migration) Real-time Customer Engagement Innovative offering Ease of use Convenient solution Listing online Corporate selling of the cards/vouchers

1.2 Objective: The objective of this project is selling the product and services offered in form of loyalty cards and flash cards by Atos Worldline in the organized retail in Bangalore. The organized retail is the target sector for this project which consists of Restaurants, Bar and Pubs, Saloon & Spa, Dance Studio, Fitness studio, Exclusive garment stores and clients. 1.3 Purpose: Keeping the above in mind, a complete marketing package has been designed which consists of Listing, Best deal as well as RCUG prepaid and loyalty program has been envisaged for merchant and the program dynamics is covered in the following sections.

CHAPTER II

ABOUT THE COMPANY

2. ABOUT THE COMPANY 2.1 Atos Worldline: Atos is an international information technology services company with annual revenues of EURO 8.7 billion and 78,500 employees in 42 countries. Through a global delivery base, Atos delivers hitech transactional services, consulting and technology services, systems integration and managed services to a client base across multiple industry sectors, including Banking & Financial services. Atos Worldline, a subsidiary of Atos, implements Hi-Tech transactional services in the field of payments, eServices for customers, citizens and communities (eCS) and financial markets. A leader in end-to-end services for critical electronic transactions, Atos Worldline specializes in electronic payment services - issuing, acquiring, terminals, card and non card payment solutions & processing ; eServices for customers, citizens and communities ; as well as transactional services for financial markets with revenue of about EURO 1 billion. 2.1.1 Some facts and figures: In Payment: 470 million remote payment 2.2 billion acquiring transactions 36 million credit cards and debit cards 850 000 terminals In eCS: 2.1 billion calls (IVR & Contact Centre) 1.6 billion SMS 61 million eMail boxes 166 billion internet pages viewed 70 million archives with evidentiary value. In Financial markets: 340 million trades 450 billion assets under management

Atos Worldline capitalises on over 30 years of expertise in the development of transactional services with high added value intended for customers, citizens and communities. Atos Worldline solutions help its clients optimize their client relations through all interaction channels. Loyalty program management, marketing databases Contact management - virtual contact center, multichannel push Development and hosting of Internet services: websites, eCommerce, eBanking Mobile services - Mobile Internet, innovative applications, mCommerce, boarding passes, loyalty cards, SMS, MMS Voice services - IVR systems, speech recognition, natural language Dematerialization services: as a trusted third party, Atos Worldline covers the complete chain of dematerialization: invoice dematerialization, archiving, online contracting, electronic signature

Atos Worldline India is a wholly owned subsidiary of Atos. More than 50 Banks and Corporates in India employ the services of Atos Worldline for executing a comprehensive range of activities associated with payments. Apart from managing end-to-end activities for about 1 million credit cards issued by our bank customers, our issuing portfolio also manages the largest prepaid card program in India with more than 3 Million cards with approximately 5 Million transactions per month. They manage more than 220,000 terminals across 1600+ locations in India. They also have the largest card personalization bureau in the country and personalize more than 36 million cards per annum.

2.2

Uphaar cards (a subsidiary of Plada Infotech):

Plada Infotech is a front-end customer service company with people consisting of varied experiences in the financial services industry backed by powerful management team as corporate members. They have their regional offices across major metro cities mainly Ahmadabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, New Delhi, Pune having head office in Mumbai and many other resident locations for customer operations. Plada started merchant acquiring services during the year 2006, June and successfully acquired nearly 45,000 plus merchants till year 2010 for various service providers and associated Banks. Plada which has been servicing customers since 2005, started with merchant acquiring services and gradually stepping into field management services. Their mission was to bring systematic approach in service delivery to achieve customer promises, which they gained through continuous research and new developments in service delivery. Pladas field management services are presently servicing around 7500 merchant establishments with dedicated resources customer wise. They have well experienced coordinators and field associates who have been recruited from similar service industry background with a strong screening HR process and in-house training sessions in place. During this last one year of their field operations, they have established themselves self strongly in Northern, Eastern and Western India and spreading our wings to other part of the Country. They have started field operations for South since March 2011. Plada Infotech has been appointed the all India direct selling authority (DSA) and the incubation of the idea of corporate gifting started and eventually Giftdedo happened with the help of collaboration between Plada Infotech and Atos Worldline. The giftdedo was launched in Mumbai on 24th January 2013 and the project started in April 2013 with the mission of becoming the largest aggregator of gift cards and gift vouchers and to start Gift card for sensible gifting. 5

The web portal offers you wide range of gift cards and vouchers that suits every occasion you name. We have researched at our best to bring you the enormous varieties of products and services. And thus we have associated with the best brands that will offer you remarkable journey. The whole process of gifting card to your loved ones is very simple and easy. You just have to log in, select your appropriate gift card and place your order. The card will reach you in 4 days at your chosen address.

CHAPTER III

Retail market in INDIA

3. Retail market in India :

The real GDP is expected to grow at 8-10 per cent per annum in the next five years. As a result, the consuming class with annual household incomes above Rs. 90,000 is expected to rise from about 370 million in 2006-07 to 620 million in 2011-12. Consequently, the retail business in India is estimated to grow at 13 per cent annually from US$ 322 billion in 2006-07 to US$ 590 billion in 2011-12.

The retail market is booming in Bangalore especially the organized retail market. The rise in the income levels of the young professionals working in various multinational companies in and around Bangalore has led the organized retail sectors to flourish. The reason for the paradigm shift in retail market in the city is growing affluence. In the last 10 years Bangalore's population has increased around 30 per cent; it is ranked the seventh most affluent city in India. It is estimated that over one-third of the households in Bangalore have an annual expenditure between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1 lakh, while 40 per cent of the city's population has annual incomes ranging between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1.4 lakh. The 15-45 age group is a retailer's delight (Giriprakash, 2005) . The high end streets in Bangalore such as Koramangala, M.G. Road, Brigade road, Commercial Street, Indira nagar, ITPL Road, Whitefield etc. are the prominent places where these organized retail in form of Restaurants, Bar and Pubs, Saloon & Spas, Dance Studios, Super market, Hyper market etc. 7

There has been a phenomenal growth of organized retail in Bangalore which is evident from table no. 01.

Source: (Sheela, 2010) The advent of organized retail market started way back in 1970 when big retailers such as Nilgiris in food segment, Viveks in consumables and others started their operations from Bangalore. Slowly, Tatas (Star Bazar), Birlas (More), Ambani (Reliance Retail), Shoppers Stop, Future group (Big Bazar), Auchan etc. entered Bangalore and are doing quite well.

The traditional shops slowly started fading from the city as branded items were available in the big retail outlets with lot of discounts and schemes. More number of people or inhabitants has started to spend on food, fun, clothes, Spa etc. through the services provided by the organized retailers in Bangalore. Due to attractiveness of organized retail, many unorganized retailers started realizing the importance of the organized way and started to convert their traditional kirana shops to mini super market in order to increase their business. This transition of the unorganized retail to the organized retail changed the face of retail in Bangalore and also provided the new market to tap in with the loyalty programme by means of loyalty cards.

Source: (Sheela, 2010) The table above shows that discount on prices and offers on purchase of certain variety of products were found predominantly in the organized outlet.

CHAPTER IV

Loyalty program

4. Loyalty program:
Definition: Loyalty program is a program that allows customer to accumulate free rewards/incentives in form of points or cash back etc. when they make repeat purchases with a firm. The term customer loyalty program was coined by Neiman Marcus in the retail industry which is also called InCircle. Thus, loyalty is a multi dimensional construct and needs to be viewed as an attitude that leads to relationship with the brand/store, outcome in terms of revealed behavior, relational in terms of advocacy, word of mouth communication and buying is moderated by the individuals characteristics, circumstances and /or the purchase situations.

Why we need a loyalty programme? In the modern era of retailing, when every street side retailer is providing the same goods and services at almost the same price, there is nothing to choose from. Here come loyalty cards in handy and stands out to be a great differentiator.

Factors influencing loyalty: The factors which influence/shape loyalty are: Satisfaction emanating from prior purchase experience with a retail outlet motivating a consumer to come to the store again. Switching barriers, once a consumer signs a loyalty program, if he leaves it, he loses the point accumulated on previous purchases made. Thus once a consumer becomes a member of any loyalty program, switching barriers get created.

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Interpersonal relationships, particularly in the context of a retail store, floor persons, billing persons in charge and customers interact. If a customer frequently visits the store, interpersonal relationships develop as shopping of groceries requires frequent visits to the store. This also helps in strengthening loyalty & creating a switching barrier.

Attractiveness of alternatives, in the context of retail store if there is any new outlet which is closer than the current store; proximity enhances the attractiveness of it & may create a barrier to loyalty.

If a retail store comes out with a very special promotion then also temporarily it may become very attractive to a potential customer & hence may trigger a drift on that purchase occasion. If the customer has signed in a particular loyalty programme then he would weigh alternatives & accordingly decide to stay loyal or drift.

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4.1 Evolution of Loyalty Programmes:

It is believed that in mid 1800s, co-operatives pioneered this concept. Literature mentions the famous Green Shield Stamp a co-operative dividend programme. However, real impetus was seen in 1990s with technological developments in developed markets. Wide ranging programmes were in existence from save your till receipts to sophisticated smart cards and complex coalition programmes involving huge customer base and large number of loyalty partners with greater diversity of rewards. Early adoption of loyalty programmes was found in airline sector. Hotels, retail, financial services, leisure sectors followed suit. FMCG sector also experimented through continuity programmes and loyalty clubs. It is observed that durable goods manufacturers, many service businesses (like entertainment businesses-multiplexes, credit card providers) and organized retail outlets have been using varied loyalty programmes. In UK, 92%of UK consumers participated in a loyalty program of which 72% were members of 2 or more programs. According to recent studies, there were 150 schemes in operation resulting in the circulation of more than 40 million cards. In US, the value of loyalty programs was worth $6 billion in early 2000, and there were 2,250 separate loyalty programs. Recent study found that 90% of Americans actively participate in some type of loyalty programs. Forrester research study found that 54% of primary US grocery shoppers belong to 2 or more programs. Following are the two means for running the loyalty programme:

a)

Loyalty cards:

Loyalty cards are the easiest and cheap ways for running the loyalty programme. Its applications are most common in retailing. Specially coded credit/debit cards or other special scanner-readable cards are issued which are swiped at point of sale. 12

It is a mechanism for identifying and rewarding loyal customers. They resemble to debit and credit cards of banks yielding credibility and value. They are durable, cheap and versatile. Card are of various types: point cards, coalition/multi retailer cards, co-branded cards, store cards etc. Loyalty card scheme operates by awarding points according to customer spend on each transaction. These points are used for giving discounts for future/current purchase at store where earned, Gifts, member-only deals, rebates at some threshold level of spending and /or eligibility to participate in lucky draw, contests.

b) Rewards:

The rewards attached to a loyalty programme may be categorized into tangible and intangible rewards. Some of the tangible rewards are personal tangibles like gifts, utilitarian tangibles like household appliances, and amusement tangibles like music system, video game or economic rewards like discounts. Intangible rewards may vary in the form of CSR (corporate social responsibility activities), amusement intangibles like invitation to a music, fashion show, free packaged tours, information in the form of newsletters, leisure related services like boating, golf, exclusive preview of new items or ecological activities like preserve wild life, no to plastics campaign etc.

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4.2 Developing, implementing and controlling an effective loyalty program:

In order to develop, implement and control an effective loyalty program, following steps are suggested to be pursued: 1. Outline objectives of loyalty program: Objectives should be quantified as far as possible. 2. Develop budget: The top management should agree to apportion budget to undertake the activities under the program. 3. Determine eligibility for program: Qualification criteria need to be decided upfront so that it becomes self sustaining and not a drain on bottom line. 4. Select rewards: Careful mix of rewards tangible and intangible, price cut and value added, experiential and aspirational will ensure involvement of various consumers. 5. Explore partnerships: Explore partnership with others so that costs can be shared. 6. Plan for development, maintenance and possible marketing of database to share its costs. 7. Plan for managing data warehouse & data mining capacity either internally or through outsourcing. 8. Monitoring: Evaluate success or failure of a program once launched. 9. Take corrective action.

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Outline objectives Develop Budget Determine eligibility

Select rewards

Explore partnership Maintain database Managing data warehouse

Monitoring

Corrective action
Fig. Flow chart for developing, implementing and controlling an effecting loyalty program. 15

4.3 LOYALTY CARD: LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL PLAYERS 4.3.1 INTERNATIONAL SCENARIO: In the international market, there is a mixed response on the loyalty card scheme. On one side there are players like Tesco (launched its Clubcard in 1995 and has currently around 15 million cardholders) and Sainsbury (launched its Reward Card in 1996 and has currently around 18 million cardholders) who are focussing more and more on loyalty card schemes then on the other side we have ASDA and Safeway who have abandoned their loyalty card schemes. 4.3.2 INDIAN SCENARIO: Loyalty as a market is still growing in India. There are a certain percentage of sales which can be set aside from a customer-value-proposition point of view. Unlike U.K and U.S where this loyalty card programs is on peak. In India it is still in the growth phase. In India majority of the multi brand retailers and single brand retailers are offering loyalty card. Recently, in a move Indias biggest retailer Future Group scrapped their old loyalty card scheme and switched to the Germans most famous Payback Card scheme, where all the data compilation and calculation is done by the third party which is Payback. Clients typically spend about one per cent of their retail sales on loyalty/retention programmes. Some part of it goes into managing the programme, while the remaining goes into giving away reward points to customers. Typically, you would give out 70 per cent towards reward points, and 30 per cent into managing systems, software etc. If you look at the sectors which use loyalty programmes, be it retail, banking or telecom, these are all organised sectors. So, one per cent of their retail sales are a pretty big number. In that sense, its a massive market.

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CHAPTER V

About the Product

5. About the Product:

A)

The giftdedo flash card is the concept initiated inorder to make the whole process of gifting a sensible approach towards gifting which is called Sensible gifting. The flash card is a pan India card where in the owner of the card can access lots of offers on various brands, exciting offers and discounts, gift vouchers and other value added services. The card is transferable card and does not have any magnetic strips so no records are kept at this level but the card bears to unique things which are: An unique 5 digit number A validity period on the card.

The card can be shown to the merchant who is onboard and has signed a contract with us and avail the best offers on Restaurants, Saloon & Spa, Bar & lounge, Dance studios, Fitness studio, Garments etc. These giftdedo cards are being sold to the corporates wherein the corporates give these cards to their employees as part of their contribution to the company. The employee shall visit the website and check for the offer and on showing the card to that particular merchant, can avail the offer mentioned on the website.

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Key Benefits of this card: We have various deals rolling on our website: www.giftdedo.com/bestdeals in best deals section. Please visit to get updates of new merchants.

Your cardholder can flash privilege card at any of the mentioned store and avail the discount mentioned at our website.

It helps getting discounts upto 20% to 50 %.

Save yearly on shopping, dining, health & beauty, Travel & many more.

Benefits in more than 300 shops in Mumbai and 50 shops in Bangalore with categorization of Restaurant & Bar, Hotels, Electronics & Watches, Jewellery, Fashion and Health & beauty, Fitness , Dance studio etc.

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B)

These are the customized closed user group cards created for one of our clients in Bangalore. These cards help the merchant to introduce various loyalty programs for its clients. The card has following unique features: Atos Worldline will be responsible for the following: Card Generation & Dispatch Card Management & Authorization Card Validation Loyalty program Management Loyalty Campaign design and set-up Terminal Management Field Services Settlement & Reconciliation Reporting & MIS

In addition to this, Atos will also be enabling the facility of loading, reloading, and refund on these cards. All the cards issued will be sent in inactive state. These customized cards are closed user loop card and Reserve Bank of India (RBI) does not have any regulations to keep on these kinds of cards. 19

The customized cards are gaining popularity amongst the merchants and help to be in the elite group by creating brands of them. The concept provides a full proof transactional service for the retailers or the merchants and helps their business to grow.

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5.1

Program Features:

Giftdedo.com, which is an online portal, launched on 24th January2013, already has a plethora of big brands like TAJ, Life style, Big Bazaar, Jugheads, Mainland China, Lakme Salon, On Toes, Rhysetta ,Westside, CCD, COSTA COFFEE, Titan, Reliance Digital, Nike, Baskin and Robins, Monginis, Esbeda, HomeTown, Tresmode, Yebhi.com, jabong.com ,spas like Placid, Sohum, Mudd, Empire, Aroma Thai, Megamart, Zaras, The couch, The pub world etc. Giftdedo is an online platform to run offer-based or discounted reward catalogues to provide tangible additional value for your channel partners, customers and employees. It uses a built in secure payment gateway for convenient credit card transactions. 21

 Ideal for: Employee benefits, Seasonal offers, Channel/Partner value adds etc. Advantages: Online platform Customisable home page Quick and easy to deploy Secure payment gateway Customisable deals and offers Branded merchandising Customised communication

Given below were the areas assigned to me during the internship: A) ALL GIFT CARD: Under all gift card segments, we will list merchant business for free on giftdedo.com which will help to increase customer base of his business online. Due to corporate selling of card, the corporates can view online on the website, merchants gift vouchers/coupons can be sold into the corporates. On every purchase, merchants have to pay a mutually agreed commission rate as mentioned in the contract to the company (giftdedo.com). B) BEST DEALS: The listing of merchants business on giftdedo.com under best deals for their privilege card and will flash the deal that they want to offer to the corporate customers. This will definitely help merchants to increase the customer footfall and increase your revenue generation. The deals that merchants will be offering can be changed 6 times in a year depending on the time of the year, occasions or special days.

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The corporate sales team, has distributed the privilege cards on a large scale and they have noticed a large demand for cafes, lounges, salon and spa and resorts for the employees of these MNC`s Our corporate clients where giftdedo.com privilege cards have been distributed are Bharti Axa, Tata Sky, Club Mahindra etc. C) MAKE MY CARD/ RETAIL CLOSED USER GROUP: You can offer loyalty cards, gift cards and prepaid cards for your customers. Advantages of make my card: Easy to Implement: a. Once Merchant is signed into the program, the following items will be provided for the program i. A KIT containing 1,000 prepaid Cards or such higher number as may be required by Merchant (designed as per your branding) Such cards will be chip cards Enabled with a tap reader ii. A POS device (terminal) designed for accepting the cards iii. Real-time Loyalty Solution will be a part of this bundled package iv. Report/MIS to track portfolio and manage funds.

Not easily replicable: a. Since it is technologically linked and has cards and terminals managed (along with loyalty, MIS) are customized to the requirement of merchant, there will be very high time to market for competition to roll-out such a program.

Low Cost: a. Cost will be kept a minimum by making use of a common platform on a shared service basis and will be on a services model. 23

Prominent Branding: a. The Card will be uniquely designed for merchant with its logo & the face of the card will be open for designs as provided by merchant. b. SMS alerts will also be designed to increase customer engagement and will be sent by the name of merchant (optional cost impact).

Innovative Customer Engagement: a. Flavor of Loyalty and campaigns will be included (as per the presentation sent earlier). b. Dynamic campaigns can help Merchant to design promotions based on the transaction history of your customers. Rewards can be different for different customers, based on their spending patterns on the card.

Cash Management: a. With the use of CUG Card, Merchant will have access to funds in advance b. Easier for front staff because it will reduce cash handling at the counter c. Convenient for staff (cashier) and employees as they do not have to carry cash and the troubles of cash (change) are completely eliminated

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5.3 Prepaid Program Workflow:

5.3.1 Enrollment of Merchant: 5.3.1.1 Sales Team will close the deal and have the enrollment form filled by the Merchant. 5.3.1.2 Sales team will collect the funds through cheque/DD upfront along with Enrollment form from the merchant and will hand over the same to the Finance team. 5.3.1.3 Finance Team will have the cheque cleared or DD deposited. On realization of funds in our account, they will mark the form as approved and the enrollment/order form will then be provided to Operation for further processing. 5.3.1.4 If in case Finance team come across any discrepancies (Like Cheque bounce) while carrying out the checks & clearance process, they will redirect the form along with Cheque/DD to the Sales team and Sales team will co-ordinate with the merchant on the same. 5.3.1.5 Once the operation team is in receipt of the form, it will check if the form has been marked as approved by finance team. If approved, they will proceed with creating the cards and have them dispatched to the merchant. 5.3.1.6 Atos Ops will create corporate (Merchant) in Front-End which will allow capture of following: 5.3.1.6.1 5.3.1.6.2 Details of the locations, where terminal needs to be set-up. Terminal which will have functionalities like 5.3.1.6.2.1 Card Sale (Load) 5.3.1.6.2.2 Reload 5.3.1.6.2.3 Purchase 5.3.1.6.2.4 Refund 5.3.1.6.2.5 Void Transaction 5.3.1.6.2.6 Auto Reversal 5.3.1.7 Physical deployment of the terminal. 5.3.1.8 Cards Dispatch: 5.3.1.8.1 On setting-up the corporate (Merchant) in the system, an order for 2,000 cards will be automatically generated. 25

5.3.1.8.2

Provision will be available with Merchant on the front-end module to reorder more cards.

5.3.1.8.3

Provision will be available with Atos Call center/ Atos Ops to order cards on behalf of Merchant.

5.3.1.8.4

Once the orders are placed, VI Ops will process the requests, generate the cards and dispatch it to the dispatch address. Such cards will be in an inactive mode.

5.3.1.9 Card Activation: 5.3.1.9.1 5.3.1.9.2 Once an employee agrees to opt for the prepaid program with merchant. The cashier collects the card issuance amount / fee (optional) from the employee and then conducts a Card Activation transaction on the POS terminal by swiping the card on the terminal. 5.3.1.9.3 5.3.1.9.4 Every card sale is mapped to the inventory ordered by a particular Merchant outlet. When the card is swiped for a card sale transaction the card number of the card swiped is validated against the inventory of that particular Merchant outlet. 5.3.1.9.5 If the card does not belong to the inventory mapped to any of the Merchant outlet, the transaction is declined and an error message is displayed on the terminal (A Merchant outlet can only source cards from the allocated inventory lot). 5.3.1.9.6 5.3.1.9.7 Inventory Management and tracking will need to be managed based on card sale. The cashier gets a form filled from the customer which captures basic details like customer name, contact number, DOB & address (Merchant can collect more fields as required and this is optional). 26

5.3.1.9.8

This step is undertaken to validate the issued card & get customer data. These forms are sent to Atos office in physical or electronic format and the same gets updated against the issued card numbers.

5.3.1.10

Card Load/Reload:

5.3.1.10.1 This step is post the activation step. 5.3.1.10.2 All card load/ reload transactions can be carried out only on an active card. 5.3.1.10.3 The cashier will swipe the card and select load/reload option. 5.3.1.10.4 The cashier will input the load/reload value and submit the request. 5.3.1.10.5 If the transaction is successful, a charge slip will be generated providing the value loaded/reloaded and the current balance on the card. (Optional: SMS alerts can be sent to the employee with the valid load/reload amount and total balance available on the card) 5.3.1.11 Purchase Transaction:

5.3.1.11.1 The customer will hand over the card to the Store clerk to make payment. 5.3.1.11.2 The cashier swipes the card and selects sale option. 5.3.1.11.3 The cashier inputs the payment value and submits the request. 5.3.1.11.4 On successful authorization, a charge slip will be generated providing the sale value and the current balance on the card. (Optional: SMS will be sent for sale transaction as well as provide the balance amount on the card). 5.3.1.12 Balance Enquiry:

5.3.1.12.1 The customer will hand over the card to the store clerk for balance enquiry. 5.3.1.12.2 The cashier swipes the card and selects balance enquiry option. 5.3.1.12.3 The cashier inputs the payment value and submits the request. 5.3.1.12.4 On successful authorization, a charge slip will be generated providing current balance on the card. (Optional: SMS) 27

5.3.1.13

Call Centre Support:

5.3.1.13.1 Capture card order requests from Merchant. 5.3.1.13.2 To know the transaction/ card order status. 5.3.1.13.3 To know card status. 5.3.1.13.4 Card Cancellation. 5.3.1.14 Promotional Marketing / Loyalty Program (optional): Atos Worldline has offered to integrate the Real-time Marketing Program platform along with the prepaid program to add real-time dynamism to enrich the overall value proposition for their end customer. Real-time Promotional Marketing Program is described herewith; 5.3.1.15 Real-time Promotional Marketing:

5.3.1.15.1 All CUG cards will automatically be a part of the program. 5.3.1.15.2 The terminal would route the transaction to the real-time server to check / print / award offers based on parameters (demographic or transaction, in nature) before passing it to the payment switch. 5.3.1.15.3 This program will help in creating different buckets for CUG customers and treat them with a different offer. 5.3.1.15.4 This unique ability will create customer delight as customers would tend to receive unique reward as compared to others. 5.3.1.16

Benefits of the Promotional Marketing: Helps increasing usage and spends. Helps run incentive program for employees to spend more on the card in a limited time frame. Helps create loyalty towards merchant restaurant.

28

The description of the awards are given below for greater understanding Types of Awards Instant Discounts Configuring varying levels of discounts to customers at POS, based on parameters at the back-end These could be either completion of an event or standard The dynamism helps to offer greater discounts to more profitable customers Paper coupons This is yet another type of award, where the customer will be given a paper coupon permitting with a gift for their current or subsequent visit or a discount for their future visit or a discount / gift to be redeemed at an alliance merchant partner This paper coupon can be used to cross-sell, up-sell or undertake movement across different participating stores Marketing Messages Communication will be printed on their charge-slips to inform them of their current award as well as information of similar benefits in subsequent visits This will complement other forms of marketing to cardholders

5.3.1.17

Enhanced Capabilities: The core proposition of the Real-time Marketing Program is With a single payment card swipe / dip / tap, a. The customer is identified. b. Linked to a promotion (at the back-end), based on his / her demographic profile and / or transaction history (purchasing behavior). c. Instantly delivers the right promotion to the right customer at the right time (while the customer is making a payment). 29

Enrollment of merchant

Card Activation

Card load/Reload

Purchase Transaction

Balance Enquiry

Call centre support

Optional marketing/loyalty program

Real time promotional marketing

Fig: Flow chart for prepaid program workflow. 30

CHAPTER VI

Analysis

6 ANALYSIS: In this section, different tools such as PEST, SWOT, porters five force theory, and competitor analysis are used to get insight about the project. 7.1 PEST ANALYSIS:
Political Liberal government policies. Minimal interference of reserve bank of India (RBI) in closed user group transactions. Future legislation expected due to foreign direct investment (FDI). Economical Highly economy driven. Customer/end-user driven. Seasonality issues. International trade and monetary issues

Social Consumer buying pattern. Buying access and trends Social factors Advertising and publicity Brand & Company

Technological Competing technology Consumer buying mechanisms/technology. Information and communications (Social media)

PEST analysis (political, economical, social, and technological) assesses a market, including competitors, from the standpoint of a particular proposition or a business. From the above analysis performed, the market is favorable for these loyalty cards and corporate gifting.

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6.2 SWOT:
SWOT MATRIX

Helpful to achieving the objective Strengths

(attributes of the system)

Harmful to achieving the objective Weaknesses No previous experience in retail industry. Product pricing.

Brand Technical expertise Worldwide presence Economically stable Good relationships with the merchants Product features and attributes.

Internal origin

Opportunities
(attributes of the environment)

Threats Other players in the market such as giftbig on similar gifting concept.

Government liberal policies. Exemption from RBI regulations. Great market potential.

External origin

Other corporate companies working on the concept of corporate gifting but having different offerings such as Giftbig, Giftxoxo, Loylty Rewardz Management Pvt., Creative cards and solutions etc.

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6.3 Porters Five Force:

Porters five forces analysis nalysis can reveal insights about the potential future attractiveness of the industry.

7.3.1 Bargaining Power of Suppliers: Less The term 'suppliers' comprises all sources for inputs that are needed in order to provide goods or services. Supplier bargaining ining power is likely to be less when:


The market is dominated by a many large s suppliers. There are no substitutes for the particular input, The switching costs from one supplier to another are less less,

In such situations, the buying industry often faces a high pressure on margins from their suppliers. The relationship to powerful suppliers can potentially reduce strategic options for the organization.

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7.3.2

Bargaining Power of Customers: High

Similarly, the bargaining power of customers determines how much customers can impose pressure on margins and volumes. Customers bargaining power is likely to be high as




7.3.3 The supplying industry comprises a large number of small operators The supplying industry operates with high fixed costs, The product is undifferentiated and can be replaces by substitutes, Switching to an alternative product is relatively simple and is not related to high costs, Customers have low margins and are price-sensitive, Threat of New Entrants: High

The competition in an industry will be the higher; the easier it is for other companies to enter this industry. New entrants could change major determinants of the market environment (e.g. market shares, prices, customer loyalty) at any time. The threat of new entries will depend on the extent to which there are barriers to entry. These are typically




High initial investments and fixed costs, Brand loyalty of customers Protected intellectual property like patents, licenses etc, Scarcity of important resources, e.g. qualified expert staff Access to raw materials is controlled by existing players,

7.3.4

Threat of Substitutes: High

A threat from substitutes exists if there are alternative products with lower prices of better performance parameters for the same purpose. Similarly to the threat of new entrants, the treat of substitutes is determined by factors like



Brand loyalty of customers, Close customer relationships, Switching costs for customers, Relative price for performance of substitutes.

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7.3.5 Competitive Rivalry between Existing Players: Less This force describes the intensity of competition between existing players (companies) in an industry. Competition between existing players is likely to be less when


There are few players of about the same size, Players have dissimilar strategies. Barriers for exit are high (e.g. inexpensive equipment).

On analyzing the results, we can say that the attractiveness of this industry is high.

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6.4Competitor Analysis:
ATOS & GIFTDEDO Closed user group, Flash card, Gift vouchers , corporate selling of gift vouchers CUG is priced high, Other offerings are fairly price Good Moderate Good Fair Moderate on advertising Magnetic Strip based Good Global Good packaging Corporate selling via electronic as well as physical medium GIFTBIG (QWIKCILVER) Customized cards, Gift vouchers, e-gift vouchers, Gift cards, e-gift cards IMPORTANCE TO CUSTOMER Best brands with best deals

FACTOR

ACCENTIV Customer, Employee and Channel loyalty programs.

Products

Price

Fairly priced

Fairly priced

Value for money

Quality Social media Service Reliability Advertising Expertise Company Reputation Location Appearance

Good Aggressive Good Fair High on advertising POS based Good India Good packaging General selling via electronic medium

Good Moderate Good Fair Moderate on advertising POS based Good Global Good packaging Corporate selling via physical medium

Good Aggressive Good Fair Moderate on advertisement Security (Magnetic strips) Good Global Good packaging Selling via both electronic as well as physical medium

Sales Method

36

CHAPTER VII

General sales strategies

6 General sales strategies:

The sales strategy employed here helps in establishing plans and strategies to expand the customer base in Bangalore. While framing strategies in order to expand our customer base, following elements have been considered:

1. Defining target market: Knowing this is critical to sales success. In this project, our target market is retail segment and in particular the Hotels and Restaurants. Prominent Hotels and Restaurants are considered in entire Bangalore. A database of the Hotels and Restaurants needs to be developed in order to systematically approach them and discuss the project with them. The database should have probable clients who have enough infrastructure and capabilities to satisfy the needs of customers. We may have to merge two similar target markets in order to have the numbers working in your favors.

2. Determine our outreach: Once weve defined our target and created the database, reach out to our networks to see if we are connected in any way to the person or organization you seek. This includes direct outreach emailing or calling them and exploring our LinkedIn contacts or own network. In this project, we will use following channels to reach our customers: a) Direct or on-site sales. b) Cold calling to our potential customers. 37

c) Emailing (Direct marketing) d) Own Network e) Aggressive promotions on Social media such as Facebook, Pinterest. f) Presentation/Brochures/Introductory letters. Prospect, follow up and set up the meeting and then follow up to close deal! 3. Framing questions: Before going for a sales appointment, a list of questions shall be created which we have to ask the prospect. This is the time for us to really get to know them, their needs, and their business practices. In this project, we can ask following questions such as: a) When did they start their business? b) How many hotels and restaurants they have in Bangalore? c) Do they have any gift vouchers/coupons/cards? d) If they do not have any existing vouchers, how can you add value to their existing systems (Best deals & Make your own cards). e) Talk about Prepaid cards if they want to listen.

4. Competitor Analysis: Analyze your competitors time to time and keep a close eye on their offerings. Watching the competitor moves closely, we can update ourselves and prepare ourselves to get conversions on faster rate.

5. Monitor: This is one of the most critical aspects of a successful sales strategy. As we move forward with our plan we must keep track of how well it is working. 38

A daily reporting system shall be defined where each of sales guys has to report their reporting authority. Effective monitoring can be done by asking ourselves these questions:

How did it go? What worked? What didnt work? Did I hit my numbers?

Knowing what works and what doesnt give you the opportunity to tweak your process.

39

6.5

Specific sales strategies employed: for identification & in getting closer to the merchants (Case by Case). A) The database of the clients who use our EDC terminals helped us to approach the vendor in more organized and effective way. Sales strategies were designed keeping in mind that particular customer set.

Sales Strategies: Case A We approach the merchants by extending our free promotional solution to them in recognition of their loyalty towards our company.

B) Check for the merchants who are giving offers through internet or physical verification by visiting the market place. Sales strategies were designed keeping in mind that particular customer set.

Sales Strategies: Case B Approach these merchants by offering the free listing of their offer on the website and at the same time providing the readymade client base for them. Apart from the above mentioned strategies, contingency strategies were made in order to convert the merchants supported by below mentioned activities: Cold calling. Fixing an appointment/meeting. Sending business proposal via emails. Constant and regular follow-ups. Signing the contact. Closing the deal. 40

CHAPTER VIII

Customer feedback

7 Customer Feedback: Merchants erchants opinion

Under this section, the findings in terms of the merchant opinion on the product are discussed. All the data shown below were collected during the initial negotiations about the product & its offering with the merchant. Total of 86 merchants data were collected to extract information. 8.1 Do you like the product & its offerings?

70

Liking for the product

60

50 No. of respondents

40

30

20

10

0 Series1

yes 64

No 22

Inference: 64 respondents liked the product.

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8.2 If you dont like the product offering, what can be the probable reasons?

Why you don't like the product offerings

Packaging Many players on the same functionality Business model is complex Costly

34%

11% 34% 21%

Inference: Cost and complexity of the Business model (both 34%) are equally not liked by the respondents.

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8.3

Why do you think organising a group gift online offers added value?

Value add in online gifting

40 35 30 respondents 25 20 15 10 5 0 Saving of time Freedom to give as much as working Being able to see the gift

Inference: Being able to see (tangibility) is considered as the preferred value add

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8.4

Encouraging aspects of loyalty scheme for spending

Encouraging aspects of loyalty scheme for spending

30 25 respondents 20 15 10 5 0 Rewards which give me money off products or services Offers that are relevant to me Its easy to understand how I earn my rewards Earn and use points or rewards with my payment or credit card Benefits and dedicated customer service that are available to members of loyalty scheme 29

Series1

14

21

16

Inference: Benefits and dedicated customer service are considered as the encouraging aspects of loyalty scheme for spending.

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CHAPTER IX

CONCLUSION

9.0 CONCLUSION
The entire project was a learning experience. The pre sale of the card required lot of brainstorming on strategies, formulating strategy as per the size of the retailer. Target identification is always the key step towards closure of deal. Once, the target is identified, the MAN (Money, Authority and Need) or the decision maker (Owner) is targeted and approached through cold calls followed by sending e proposal, business meeting , follow-up and finally closure of the deal. Sales strategies were formulated considering the target identified .This systematic approach towards acquiring merchants (acquiring the financial data) helped in getting best brands along with best deals on the website which will ultimately boost the sale of card or customization of card. Merchants were informed about the offering of the product and how the product can help their business to grow manifolds by meeting and briefing them about the product. The merchant having chain of centers can be identified as probable. The greatest advantage in this context, is the loyalty programmes, which are not just points / cash backs/instant gratification, the customer can get instant gratification in terms of cash which is highly relevant.

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CHAPTER X

RECOMMENDATION

10.0 RECOMMENDATION
Following are my recommendations which I feel in my opinion can help the whole business to grow and expand: 1. As most of the working population uses mobile apps, Tab etc. Launching the whole package in mobile app concept can help in effective communication with target audience. 2. Introduction of e-gift cards which can be delivered instantaneously within 5 minutes can attract lot of traffic. 3. Option of checking balance of your card online apart from the call centre can help in allowing customer to spend more time on the website and spend up buying our offerings. 4. Active presence in social media such as face book, You tube etc can boost your social presence. Customer engagement on social media is very important. 5. Remarketing is very beneficial to connect online. This is a cost efficient method and helps the visibility of product or services on the online platform. 6. Friend, blend, spend (the open-loyalty economy): the open-loyalty economy enables customers to exchange currency with trusted friends and businesses. Young tech-savvy consumers in particular are embracing this technology, leading us into a future in which points look more like currency. 7. Customers should be engaged or involved continuously throughout their association. Customer opinion should always be considered at every strategic levels.

46

REFERENCES
Ajay. (2012, May 17). Linkedin. Retrieved May 07.06.2013, 2013, from http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Retail-Revolution-in-India-Loyalty4362148.S.116152429: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Retail-Revolution-in-IndiaLoyalty-4362148.S.116152429 Giriprakash, K. (2005, December 24). The Hindu Business line. Retrieved June 12, 2013, from http://www.thehindubusinessline.in/bline/2005/12/24/stories/2005122400130100.htm: http://www.thehindubusinessline.in Hoogenberg, M., & Ruiter, F. (2010). Customer centric loyalty programs as key to High performance retailing. US: Accenture. Sheela, A. M. (2010). Impact of the growth of organized food retailing and its impact on traditional retailers in Bangalore. Bangalore: St. Joseph's college of commerce. Singh, B. B. (2013, April 27). Loyalty Card Scheme - Are they really loyal . Retrieved 5 May, 2013, from http://www.ideasmakemarket.com/2013/04/loyalty-card-scheme-are-theyreally.html: http://www.ideasmakemarket.com/2013/04/loyalty-card-scheme-are-theyreally.html Srivastava, chetan, & G, B. (2011). Impact of loyalty program on retailing business in India: creating long term customer relationships. India: International Academy of Business and Economics. Vyas, P. H., & Sinha, P. K. (2008). Loyalty Programmes : Practices, Avenue, Challenges. Ahmedabad: IIM Ahmedabad.

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LIST OF CONVERTED MERCHANTS

Retailer
The couch The pub World Alibi the pub Zaras Spa and Salon Megamart Philips DEFA solutions Forza Guzzlers Inn My salon Empire Body Art B A Ink Fresh n Hot Anda ka Funda Fitness Maniac Cotton design Aangan Vinayaka Enterprises Delightz Chocolat zone Dancing Scissors Car edge Way 2 Home Heavens tattoo

Location
Brigade Road MG Road Church street Richmond Road MG Road Richmond Road MG Road MG Road Brigade Road Castle street MG Road Malleshwaram Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Indira nagar Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Castle street

U for fashion Koramangala Green Chillyz Koramangala 5th Element Downtown Glenands Fuzzy wozzy Yashbans boarding kennels little Italy brain freezer Hyderabad Biryani zone Hip Hop India Ayoun Vasthraa Music and metal Bikes and Guzzlers Fashion cottage BTM Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Koramangala Indira nagar Indira nagar Indira nagar Indira nagar Indira nagar Koramangala Koramangala