Moovel North America (becoming REACH NOW), debuted its Loyalty and Rewards Merchant Solutions at the American Public Transportation Association’s (APTA) APTATech Transportation Technology Conference in Columbus, Ohio, Sept. 16-17, 2019.
The platform allows transit providers to integrate a rewards program into an existing mobile ticketing app. Riders can earn credit toward transit or other mobility services, while transit providers strengthen business connections and provide an incentive to encourage transit use.
“Our loyalty and rewards program is built to engage the public, both from a ridership perspective and the merchant community that is located along transit routes,” said Bonnie Crawford, vice president of Sales and Client Services at moovel. “As walk up traffic is declining for local businesses and public transit ridership is declining, we really launched our loyalty program as a mechanism to engage both of those communities and incentivize that connected experience in the local community.”
Riders set up an account in their transit provider’s mobile ticketing app where they can then view available offers and redeem by making a qualifying purchase. An SMS notification informs the rider when a credit is earned and can be redeemed.
Crawford explains that one of the many benefits offered by the program is a way to introduce riders to available micromobility options.
“One of the things that this loyalty platform leverages is the ability, not just to reward you with public transit dollars, but also to reward you with scooter credits and minutes you can use on bike share,” said Crawford. “That's a way for the platform to really act as the connective tissue in the community; connecting the first mile, last mile to public transit and to the business community and really bringing it all together in a very holistic experience.”
The program was piloted at Hampton Roads Transit over a 30-day period this summer. Crawford explains that the window to recruit merchants for the pilot was very short and it was expected that a couple of merchants would participate. However, the pilot attracted nearly a dozen merchants in a limited amount of time.
The first full deployment of the moovel’s Loyalty and Rewards Merchant Solutions will occur this fall when the company partners with VIA Metropolitan Transit of San Antonio, Texas. The platform will be known as VIA Rewards and will be part of VIA’s goMobile app, which is powered by moovel.
Crawford notes that while the Loyalty and Rewards Merchant Solutions Suite is best utilized with moovel’s mobile ticketing applications, it is an agnostic solution.
“It is an easy add on and can be embedded with any mobile platform that's out on the market,” said Crawford. “If a transit agency has another provider and is interested in offering loyalty and rewards, they can utilize our platform.”
While one of the key aspects to the new Merchant Solutions suite is merchant recruitment, moovel has designed the platform to be user friendly for transit riders, merchants and transit providers.
“Often transit agencies run very lean; they have limited resources and we've created this program to do all of the merchant recruitment digitally,” explained Crawford. “We certainly have an on the ground force as needed for some of those larger merchants, but this is really a self-service merchant registration, merchant payment and the merchants decide their own offers. It is seamless for the transit agency. They don't have to staff up to launch this program.”
The company’s acquisition of Validated, a loyalty platform, in May 2019 helped make the final development of the merchant solutions product suite possible. At the time of the acquisition, REACH NOW North America CEO Nat Parker said offering loyalty programs and business partnerships would be essential as the push toward Mobility-as-a-Service continues.
“Moovel’s vision is a world without traffic jams,” said Crawford. “Whether you're a vendor, a transit agency, a government body or city, we're all aligned with getting people out of their single occupancy vehicles.”
