BitScan, a merchant-backed loyalty program, has announced a partnership with Waves, a custom blockchain tokens platform, to implement a new type of rewards program, dubbed Incent.
Incent will introduce the “first universal, merchant-backed loyalty program,” according to the two companies, allowing merchants on the platform to boost engagement, customer loyalty and repeat business through offering customers “better-than-money rewards.” Customers will receive a portion of the value of each purchase through Incent, rather than simply a discount or “store cash” only good at the retailer it was issued at.
“Loyalty systems as they currently exist are broken,” BitScan CEO Rob Wilson said in a statement announcing the news. “Customers receive a token that has no value beyond the issuing business, and many simply don’t bother to redeem them.”
Wilson noted that, at the same time, the merchant undertakes a liability each time they issue a token, so customers actually have to use them for the loyalty program to be effective for both customers and merchants.
“No one gets the benefits they could. We know we can create a better proposition for merchants and customers alike,” Wilson said. “Our research shows eCommerce is crying out for a better solution, and that’s precisely our aim with Incent.”
BitScan and Waves said they plan to crowdfund Incent to raise the money needed to integrate the software with other eCommerce sites and attract new businesses.
Incent aims to create tokens that will steadily increase in value through market demand, so that, every time a merchant rewards a customer with a token, the token will be available for sale on an open market, thus increasing prices for the token holder and the initial crowdfunding investors.
Crowdfunding efforts will begin in October and aim to raise at least $1 million, with a cap at $5 million.
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