Swedish retailer launches NFC loyalty programme

Leading Swedish retail chain ICA says it picked NFC for the rewards programme at its ICA To Go food store in Stockholm because it will appeal to the tech savvy, health-conscious city dwellers it wants to attract.

ICA To Go
ICA TO GO: NFC driven loyalty

Swedish retail chain ICA has launched an NFC loyalty programme at the Kista, Stockholm branch of ICA To Go, a food service concept aimed at health conscious city dwellers.

The new loyalty programme is built into the ICA To Go app for iPhone and Android. The service is compatible with Android phones that have built-in NFC functionality while iPhone and Android users without NFC phones can take part in the programme by picking up an NFC tag from the store and putting it on the back of their handset.

For every lunch purchased, customers receive a stamp in their loyalty “card”. After six stamps have been collected, they get their seventh lunch for free.

“NFC is the future technology that will simplify our customers’ lives,” says Samuel Young, director of digital media at ICA Sweden. “We are very excited to see how the customer will react to this. Through the test, we can learn more about their behavior and how they accept the new technology.”

“Prior to the opening of Kista, we started thinking about how we could attract the target audience in here,” explains Eva Kimborn Heivert, project manager for ICA To Go. “Many of them are very interested in high technology.

“Previously, we worked with paper loyalty cards for our loyal customers. At ICA To Go in Kista we saw the opportunity to test the loyalty with tomorrow’s technology,” she added. “Through the app, all users can tell friends or share through Facebook and thus collect more stamps.”

A short video shows the system in action:

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