Northern Ireland’s LoyalBe app and Visa form new strategic partnership

The aim of this strategic partnership is to bring LoyalBe’s frictionless loyalty solution to the Irish market, enabling SMEs to compete on a level playing field with larger corporate retailers and allowing Visa to support small businesses in new ways.

Created by Northern Ireland entrepreneur, Cormac Quinn, LoyalBe’s clever digital loyalty solution utilises Open Banking technology to make the process of rewarding loyalty seamless. The LoyalBe app displaces traditional paper loyalty cards, instead offering a single smartphone application that relocates the power of ‘loyalty’ in the hands of shoppers and independent hospitality and retailers alike.

Cormac believes that this original application of Open Banking technology will be of even greater value to small, independent retailers as we emerge from this period of uncertainty: “Our LoyalBe app works by connecting directly to the customer’s bank card to reward purchases, thereby giving retailers the ability to understand their customers better and offer them a more personalised shopping experience. By using Open Banking technology, we make the process of rewarding loyalty seamless. Given its frictionless nature, we don’t require any equipment or software at till points and customers don’t need to change their behaviour. They simply just pay by card as usual.

“This new partnership with Visa will empower SMEs to compete on a level playing field with big retailers, through our digital loyalty solution. Loyalty is proven to drive increased sales but, for a long time, it was only the larger, corporate retailers who had access to data and analytics that gave them an advantage. From the beginning, our mission at LoyalBe has been to democratise loyalty and give smaller retailers access to invaluable data which can be used to stimulate customer engagement.

“People have seen how the smaller, independent retailers have been affected by the pandemic and now, more than ever, people are keen to champion local businesses. In this climate, tools such as LoyalBe are even more valuable in getting people back through the door and, most importantly, ensuring that they continue to come back.”

As businesses become more comfortable accepting contactless and mobile payments, now is a good time to explore growth opportunities through building customer loyalty digitally.

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