A health product retailer recently took advantage of not only one of Retail Hero’s loyalty programs - but both!

The health and nutrition store that already utilizes Microsoft’s Retail Management System, wanted to reward its customers two-fold. On the one hand they wanted to allow its customers to collect loyalty points on every purchase they made at the store, but also wanted to give them a free protein shake after they had purchased 10 shakes over time.

Knowing that no such solution existed “out of the box” from Microsoft RMS, the retailer turned to Retail Hero to provide the answers they were looking for.

Retail Hero responded and “saved the day” with two of its most popular loyalty programs designed specifically to work with Microsoft RMS. The first one was Q-Rewards, which satisfied the retailers desire to give its customers a free shake when they purchased 10 shakes over time. This program gave the retailer the ability to include/exclude whatever items they chose (in this case shakes) and have only those items count towards a free one upon reaching the threshold level. 

The second loyalty program is called Hero Points and this gave our retailer the option to reward its customers by allowing them to collect loyalty “points” on every dollar they spent at the store. Of course they were able to exclude the shakes from being eligible for loyalty points since they were already part of a loyalty program, but included everything else so that customers could save up points and redeem them for free stuff or discounts at the store.

With this kind of marketing power at their fingertips our retailer now enjoys plenty of repeat business from its loyal customer base who know that by coming back again and again they will be rewarded with free stuff and as a result are less likely to shop for their health and nutrition supplies anywhere else.

Visa has announced a new 'wave' of making small purchases without having to insert a card into a terminal. Visa Contactless uses wireless communication technology that allows a cardholder using a contactless chip card to exchange payment information securely between the card and an EMV card acceptance terminal.

The technology is currently on a trial run in Europe and various countries across the world.

Contactless payments are not entirely a new concept. For example, many gas stations take advantage of “wave and pay” technology allowing their customers to make a payment with a chip-enabled Visa debit or credit card without having to insert it into a terminal.

It’s an even faster and more convenient way of making low value, everyday purchases using a Visa chip card instead of cash. It’s ideal for outlets with high volumes of customers making low-value transactions – in particular, fast food restaurants, convenience stores and transportation.

The cardholder simply ‘waves’ their card near a card-reader to make a payment. Visa Contactless cards have a tiny radio transmitter embedded in the chip. This allows them to communicate with a point-of-sale terminal. The transaction is fast and efficient, processing at a speed of less than 0.5 seconds.

Source – Visa Europe

On August 1^st the people of British Columbia became subject to yet another “tax”. This time it has to do with technology. Things like computers, laptops, monitors, printers and the like are all being subject to this new “recycling levy”. The idea behind it according to sources at the GVRD is to reduce the amount of E-waste being dumped in the greater Vancouver regional districts landfills."Landfills are not appropriate places for electronics," said Malcolm Harvey of Encorp, a non-profit stewardship corporation running the Return-It electronics program."There are toxic materials in electronics that could potentially leak out, like lead and mercury." Old and broken electronics such as computers, laptops, printers and faxes can now be left at recycling depots for free, instead of being dumped in landfills.

Most retailers, covering 80% of the BC market, have signed up for the program. Consumers say that they wouldn’t mind paying the additional fee as long as it’s built into the price and not visible at the till.

But some BC residents although support the idea of recycling are not embracing this new “tax”. “The tax is dressed up in the nice, green finery of the "environment handling fee…it’s all baloney” says BC resident Peter Neville who wrote a letter to the Province Newspaper. “Retailers such as my computer store are required to collect this fee and remit it to a monopoly, Encorp, to pay for the disposal of various electronic devices”.

The fee he is referring to is the levy that consumers will be required to pay when purchasing new electronic equipment. It will be slapped onto things like monitors, computers, faxes and so on ranging anywhere from $10 - $45 depending on the size of the equipment.

“The government has the gall to charge PST and GST (a tax on a tax) on these fees which are non-refundable”, says Neville. “If the government were serious about protecting the environment it would have made this fee a deposit”.

Source – Canada.com

Microsoft has just announced the release of a new service pack for Microsoft RMS. This service pack must be installed on computers that are already running version 2.0 (An additional license is NOT required)

The service pack is cumulative and contains all fixes that were included in previously released hotfixes. This service pack includes 24 bug fixes in addition to fixes that were included in the four previously released Microsoft Dynamics RMS 2.0 hotfixes.

Log onto the Microsoft partnersource website to download your copy of this very important service pack for Microsoft RMS.

Reports are coming in that some major development is happening at Retail Hero. Scripts are being written, characters are being given roles to play, sets are being built and rumor has it that it all revolves around the retail industry.

The president of Retail Hero could not be reached for comment but inside sources say that all will be revealed in the coming fall. Stay tuned to this newsletter for more developments on this story as they become available.