Postcards from Perkistan

Our Twitter account @perkler and my personal one @justinbarrie follows @mediapost a tweet of all of the news coming from MediaPost Publications.

An article recently caught my eye from Online Media Daily. Gavin O’Malley was writing about the ‘line between media channels becoming increasingly blurred’. He quotes a range of statistics released in a report by Ketchum Public Relations that showed 44% of online shoppers read reviews from other consumers as part of their decision making process when purchasing.

As a result lots of small (and some huge) social communities have sprung up around specific consumer interest points. Interestingly a larger number of these people are now also broadening their reading to related blogs rather than just the comments and recommendations on a specific page.

None of this sounds entirely new - and frankly I don’t really see how this is different to how people shop offline either. I do tend to get recommendations from friends before I buy something big.

It’s more the dramatic increase in numbers and realisation that it is happening online that are interesting. In fact I remember reading something from the NRF around Christmas time about sites that have recommendations and reviews maintaining or improving their Christmas sales while others fell away.

And it’s exactly what we’ve been aware of and building on here at Perkler. When we say we are an online loyalty COMMUNITY, I can see some people reel and sigh “another 2.0″. But in the mission of simplifying loyalty programs, giving consumers power to manage and learn about everything they are entitled to - there seems little other option!

Our community features include rating and commenting. We’ve also built in functions where you can see other people’s virtual wallets (if they allow it) and we think that facilitates a really nice informal recommendation process.

But another exciting development is to start bringing content about brands from blogs and twitter directly into our space. We are working hard on this and think the blurring of media that Gavin O’Malley talks about will be there for all to see in our community.

People suggesting, rating and recommending programs to others. Feeds of anything people say about brands and programs on other social networks built in. A great consumer resource, and one that is responsive to how people are actually starting to shop.

Really interesting article via shop.org today about the decline in retail sales for those in competition with Amazon because of their user-generated recommendations.

The loyalty and rewards market has a few start-ups offering products and services (particularly in the points program sector). None of them have really taken hold of the community and user-generated aspect.

At Perkler we are obsessed with the community driving the site. Most retailers have loyalty programs, but by allowing ‘Perklers’ to rate, discuss and recommend programs we think we will really lead to better programs over time. 

Another key part of the site is that any user, anywhere can suggest a program. This means your local one-outlet cafe with a stamp card can have equal weight on Perkler as a big franchise chain. It creates a place where real discussion about the loyalty offer can take place, regardless of the size of the retailer. Our local - Kona Coffee is in the Perkolator. Best Baristas in town and they give us a free coffee every time we buy five.

The Kona boys at work.

Go Kona - go loyalty community and bring on the recommendations and ratings - WE ARE PUBLIC AND LIVE NOW!!

Justin