Ways Blockchain Can Revolutionize Retail Marketing

There are literally hundreds of amazing real-world examples of how blockchain is changing our world. While it may not be found at the top of the list, retail marketing itself is expanding through a multiplicity of ways thanks to blockchain and its many uses. The decentralization and overall anonymity of blockchain technology allows for a variety of concepts to be tailored for its use, most specifically in maintaining a safe and secure experience online when making transactions (of any sort).

Retail marketing, if you were unaware, deals with how businesses promote products and services. When advanced with the likes of blockchain and its vast plentitude of functionalities, there are endless possibilities to behold. Like almost everything else it seamlessly touches, blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing in a number of varied capacities...

Supply Chain Transparency

As so presented by the likes of Provenance, a blockchain and open data startup that's dedicated to the software of empowering customer knowledge on certain products. While this has its roots mainly in retail, the retail marketer can use the transparent supply chains as a way to build customer traffic on both the website and in real person.

Another provider of interesting tech showcasing how blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing is Tilkal, which is also a startup utilizing the transparent recording of blockchain technologies to determine counterfeit products for consumers. In this same way, the avoidance of counterfeiting through blockchain can create broader, more trusted channels for consumer-based marketing online.

Loyalty Programs

Kai Chen is the CEO of Olympus Labs. His new push for more organization in loyalty programs has somewhat begun to now focus on the realities behind blockchain and its many broader possibilities, as so unveiled in the tech's decentralized authority. This is only one of many concepts blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing.

Thanks to the way blockchains hold users accountable in any number of transitory functions, brands, and businesses alike may be able to utilize this proponent in propping up customer loyalty. How this will look isn't as complex as you might think (or how it sounds): the decentralized system thereby inherent within blockchains will allow two brands (ie Tiffany & Co. and Coach) to connect mutually, respecting cross-marketing opportunities that target continuous consumers for points they can use through the blockchain. Doesn't that sound scarily futuristic?

Mobile Payment Options

One of the most prominent ways blockchain can be used in developing countries is by way of the mobile platform (from banking to international retail). Practically all things capable of implementation are being presented to the mobile platform, so it should come as no surprise that blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing in this very light. For the retail marketer, mobile transactions under more simplified economic parameters will only enhance their methods of growth and advertising.

With the introduction of a partnership made between the likes of TelCoin and various telecom companies, the possibility of secure and convenient mobile payment methods for those without bank account access is even more apparent. TelCoin's CEO and co-founder, Claude Eguienta, says the partnership gives the company the ability to "provide financial services to billions of people."

Payment Processing

Due largely to the way cryptocurrencies have seemingly evolved from small-time economies to, now, magnificent pieces of marketable investments, the fundamental methods of payment processing have only evolved further with them. This can be seen in companies like TenX and BitPay, which are two blockchain companies that utilize the tech to make it more connective for the consumer.

TenX is one of the most profound concepts behind how blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing. The startup based out of Singapore is giving consumers the possibility to use digital currency through a Visa wallet, which makes buying and spending with cryptocurrencies much simpler. Retail marketers can use these forms of technologies to strengthen online sales and to bolster consumer demand with that of swifter crypto-payments.

Crypto-Incentives

As previously mentioned, technology that fuels decentralization ensures blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing, and what better way to adopt the decentralized concept than by utilizing the roots of blockchain functionality: cryptocurrency. CEO of Never Stop Marketing and author of The CMO Primer for the Blockchain World, Jerry Epstein, says:

"Retail marketing is going to make a strong shift into incentivized referral and gamification efforts driven by super fans and evangelists who are rewarded by microtransactions paid in cryptocurrencies."

The only real downside in cryptocurrency incentive programs would be the extreme volatility of these specific coins, or more accurately the complexity of cryptos as a whole. Epstein specifically calls out WishKinish as an example. The platform allows for specialized programs to be used by merchants to optimize customer referrals. In the scheme of things, blockchain-based referral rewards can holistically adapt the way brands and business owners bring positive awareness to their image, and then continued buying.

Warranty Plans

Much the same as crypto-incentives might work, so too can the adoption of warranty blockchain tracking reinvent retail marketing. Though it may be a small window into how blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing, it's still an immense concept that can be evolved even more so from the retail-based ideals presented in the virtual warranty wallet, Warranteer.

The 2018-released service makes product warranties easily searchable and accessible by making them cloud-based through blockchain technologies. If used in retail marketing, this concept could be furthered dramatically by allowing for broader ways to utilize warranties more effectively. This would then lead into...

Automated Customer Service

Witnessed over time, thanks to Warranteer, blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing through the use of smart contracts. These are simply guidelines or online instructions given for automatic execution when transitory conditions are met (ie a payment of $20).

Smart contracts also allow for sensitive documentations to be made on a digital ledger, thereby granting swifter proceedings in trivial disputes, and even for searching said documents, like receipts, insurance papers, and even warranties. Customer service, in other words, might be so automated and advanced in the coming years that you won't even need it as a division in your business.

Online Versus Offline Marketing

Aside from the predictable real time customer intelligence that a decentralized authority like blockchain technology can provide, there's also the revelation of an infrequent deduction made under retail: how to provide the best setting for customers. Most big-name companies, and even smaller ones nowadays, tend to have an accompanying website (at least, that is, for those who want to make the most profits).

Herein lies where blockchain can revolutionize retail marketing. Since the rise of cryptocurrency, more physical retailers have started utilizing "beacons" to bridge into the world of online-based shopping, but they can go even further, so says the CEO of Nucleus Vision, Abhi Pitti:

"Beacons allow retailers to know who a customer is and use internal data for some peripheral customer insights... But when we merge in blockchain technology, all private databases such as banks, third party apps on a mobile device, and credit card companies can open customer databases to share and monetize data with required customer authorizations recorded on a secured, incorruptible, transparent, chronological, append-only, distributed ledger called the blockchain."