Retail Loyalty App goes Fun with CHOP-STICK

ChopInk Adds Sticker Feature to Help Drive Stronger Consumer Engagement

Kuala Lumpur, 19 August 2013 – Werebits Sdn Bhd (Werebits), the developer of ChopInk, a mobile loyalty app for retail, today announced the introduction of a new Chopink feature aptly named CHOP-STICK to attract more consumers to review products and services of retail outlets they patronise. CHOP-STICK comes in the form of fun emoticon stickers that is increasing in popularity especially among Gen-Y shoppers.

Use of mobile messaging apps is taking up strong across Asia. These apps are becoming hugely popular especially with their fun emoticon stickers. Some messaging apps like Line and Kakao Talk are even leveraging the sale of sticker packs containing emoticons as a significant revenue stream.

From Left to Right: Ho Heng Yew, Marketing Director of Werebits Sdn Bhd; Teon Ooi, Co-founder of Werebits Sdn Bhd and Tan Hai Hsin, Managing Director of Retail Group Malaysia sharing a light-hearted moment at the introduction of CHOP-STICK, the new feature in Chopink.

Marketing Director of Werebits, Ho Heng Yew said, “This new communication trend is what prompted us to innovate to make ChopInk more fun to use for consumers. All they need to do is use their smartphone to capture a photo of a product or a retail outlet, add the appropriate CHOP-STICK sticker on the photo to reflect their review and then share the photo post with their friends on their selected social media platform.”

According to some studies, 85% of smartphone users prefer mobile apps to mobile websites (TechCrunch,2013), 57% of the people use mobile devices while shopping and 30% of the people would like a loyalty program embedded within the app (InsideMobileApps, 2013).

“These statistics provides strong credence on the need for businesses to provide mobile apps and experiences for their customers. By adding the CHOP-STICK feature to Chopink, we aim to provide retail merchants with further incentives to use mobile loyalty apps, while harnessing the influence of the emerging communication trend of emoticon stickers to create a strong following of their brand on social media platforms,” Ho added.

Werebits launched Chopink, digital loyalty system that uses smartphone-based app to replace paper-based loyalty stamp cards, slightly over a year ago. Retailers can leverage Chopink to run multiple loyalty programs and offer rewards for multiple purchases. They can also set up automated follow ups with customers on special occasions like birthdays and reward expiries, to engage irregular customers into becoming frequent buyers.

“ChopInk is still new in the cardless loyalty programme environment,” Ho explained, “With CHOP-STICK, we hope we can encourage a more dynamic engagement and conversation between merchants and consumers and ultimately help boost consumer’s loyalty to merchants’ brands.”

Tan Hai Hsin, Managing Director of Retail Group Malaysia, who was present in the briefing to share insights on the latest shopping trends said, “Malaysian shoppers are getting more savvy digitally as they pick up a lot of information from retailers’ websites and consumers’ sharing on social media. Retailers who want to stay competitive need to come up to speed with this new trend in order to be able to engage and capture their customers effectively.”

“The mobile app space is changing radically in the past one year. Our aim is to help retailers stay on top of the game by giving them the right tools to engage with their consumers. I am confident we will see a stronger take-up of Chopink by both consumers and merchants with the introduction of this new sticker feature”, ended Ho.