How UK-based Morrisons used APIs to build its customer loyalty program

Morrison's used Apigee to builds its new Match & More scheme

shopping_trolley.jpg

dreamstime

dreamstime_0
shopping_trolley.jpg dreamstime dreamstime_0

Morrisons' Match & More scheme, launched late last year, lets customers collect points, which can be exchanged for vouchers in store as well as price match Aldi, Lidl, Sainsbury's and Asda - all from their mobile phone.

The Match &More platform pools customer data from various sources to create a fully personalised, useful tool for customers who want to see offers based on their location, as well as compare prices with other grocers.

It does this using an Application Programming Interface (API) platform from Apigee, which provides a secure operability layer between disparate systems.

Data is sourced from Morrisons' tills, its on-premise Oracle estate (which stores the grocer's item and promotion data), the Ocado platform that stores customer information and core merchandising data, and Salesforce.com for its customer relationship data.

The Apigee tool, which runs on AWS, sits in front of these data sources and provides a single API. The site and the smartphone app can call this API to gather all this information - providing a seamless customer experience - securely, Tom Foster, Morrisons' head of platform strategy and architecture told ComputerworldUK.

The app also calls third-party price match data from competitors so the Match & More loyalty scheme can compare groceries customers are looking at or have already bought from Morrisons' competitors.

The scheme, launched in October, already has 120 million API requests a month, Foster said.

While rivals Sainsbury's and Tesco offer loyalty cards Nectar and Clubcard, Match & More is offering a truly personalised shopping experience, Morrisons claims. Using location data, it offers customers promotions relevant to their local shop and usual shopping basket based on their previous shopping profile stored in Ocado.

Enterprises are increasingly opening up APIs to external partners in a bid to foster creative applications that come from developers outside of the business.

Tesco recently launched its API wiki - a public portal, which explains how entrepreneurs can use its 19 APIs to use the retailer's data for useful applications.

Morrisons' API is currently private, but Foster said it was a route they are hoping to go down in the future, although no schedule has been set yet.

Geo-fencing

Foster said the retailer is also "looking at" geo-fencing as a way to use customer location to send personalised notifications while they shop, but would need to assess the feasibility of enabling wifi in every store and "trial carefully" to avoid being overly intrusive.

"There would be certain questions that would have to be asked," he added.

Assisting inventory - a side effect of the loyalty scheme

While pooling Morrisons', Ocado's and third-party data is useful for personalising a customer's shopping experience online and through their phone, it also assists with supply chain and inventory, Foster said.

The retailer can see how a promotion is affecting inventory in real-time, so it can order more products if necessary.

More on customer loyalty programs:
How Supercheap Auto used big data to model customer loyalty
4 brands making customer loyalty programs work
Why Fitness First is dropping its customer loyalty program and turning to data

Join the newsletter!

Or

Sign up to gain exclusive access to email subscriptions, event invitations, competitions, giveaways, and much more.

Membership is free, and your security and privacy remain protected. View our privacy policy before signing up.

Error: Please check your email address.
Show Comments

Latest Videos

More Videos

More Brand Posts

What are Chris Riddell's qualifications to talk about technology? What are the awards that Chris Riddell has won? I cannot seem to find ...

Tareq

Digital disruption isn’t disruption anymore: Why it’s time to refocus your business

Read more

Enterprisetalk

Mark

CMO's top 10 martech stories for the week - 9 June

Read more

Great e-commerce article!

Vadim Frost

CMO’s State of CX Leadership 2022 report finds the CX striving to align to business outcomes

Read more

Are you searching something related to Lottery and Lottery App then Agnito Technologies can be a help for you Agnito comes out as a true ...

jackson13

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Thorough testing and quality assurance are required for a bug-free Lottery Platform. I'm looking forward to dependability.

Ella Hall

The Lottery Office CEO details journey into next-gen cross-channel campaign orchestration

Read more

Blog Posts

Marketing prowess versus the enigma of the metaverse

Flash back to the classic film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Television-obsessed Mike insists on becoming the first person to be ‘sent by Wonkavision’, dematerialising on one end, pixel by pixel, and materialising in another space. His cinematic dreams are realised thanks to rash decisions as he is shrunken down to fit the digital universe, followed by a trip to the taffy puller to return to normal size.

Liz Miller

VP, Constellation Research

Why Excellent Leadership Begins with Vertical Growth

Why is it there is no shortage of leadership development materials, yet outstanding leadership is so rare? Despite having access to so many leadership principles, tools, systems and processes, why is it so hard to develop and improve as a leader?

Michael Bunting

Author, leadership expert

More than money talks in sports sponsorship

As a nation united by sport, brands are beginning to learn money alone won’t talk without aligned values and action. If recent events with major leagues and their players have shown us anything, it’s the next generation of athletes are standing by what they believe in – and they won’t let their values be superseded by money.

Simone Waugh

Managing Director, Publicis Queensland

Sign in