Shopping locally has never been more exciting than now with Open Rewards. As we leave behind the era of restaurant and retail restrictions, people want to shop at your business and are excited to do so. With Open Rewards, customers are given a greater incentive to shop locally, and provides new ways for locals to discover your business.
How does Open Rewards benefit businesses in your city or jurisdiction? Read on, as we discuss what Open Rewards does, how it works, and how you can start taking advantage of better connections between you and your customers.
Why Use Open Rewards?
Open Rewards was designed around a simple philosophy: shopping locally benefits the entire community, not just a single business.
From the perspective of economic development, this can be interpreted by the amount of money that remains in any given community: for every $100 spent at a locally owned business, $68 will continue to circulate in that town or city. Compare this to national chains, where this number only equates to $43. Money that remains in a community equates to a slew of benefits: more local jobs, environmental benefits, and tax dollars can be generated to continue supporting local infrastructure.
But how does shopping at other stores in the area financially benefit you as a business owner? Isn’t that just money not going into your pocket?
Not exactly. When higher volumes of traffic are directed into business districts, sales increase for all of the stores in that area.
Open Rewards incentivizes shopping at local businesses for customers in any given region. Customers earn 5% cash back every time they shop at your store that they can use to purchase at other stores in the area that have opted in to Open Rewards. In turn, when they shop at other businesses in your area, that money is returned to you.
Open Rewards is projected to net $20 in economic impact in communities for every dollar invested. Best of all, for cities offering sponsorship, the program is completely free – providing immediate returns for your business.
How Does Open Rewards Work for Business Owners?
Open Rewards is an app that functions differently for both customers and businesses. Customers download the app, connect a credit card or debit card, and start accruing rewards automatically.
Things look a bit different on the business end. For businesses that have city-wide sponsorship, the entire process is free. Otherwise, you will need to stock up your account with a small retainer that will fund the rewards money.
The amount of money stockpiled in your Open Rewards balance will go down every time a customer makes a purchase, and replenish whenever customers using Open Rewards redeem their balance at a store. For a city that fully embraces Open Rewards, it may become unnecessary to add money back into that balance once customers begin using their points across local stores – at this point, you may remove an excess balance in the retainer and take that money as profit.
Retainer money stored in your Open Rewards balance is yours – you can add or remove it at any time with no transfer cost. However, once the balance has dipped below a $20 threshold, you will need to add more money into your account to keep it active.
Open Rewards Offers Local Business Owners Greater Visibility in Partnered Cities
Open Rewards is only one of the ways Bludot helps cities develop better relationships with local businesses while providing them with support. Joining Open Rewards puts you in a network of local businesses dedicated to mutual success, while making it easy for customers to find places to dine and shop close to home. More, it makes shopping locally exciting. By browsing the app, customers can discover a new favorite restaurant, and use the money they earn back to shop at stores like yours.
Currently, Open Rewards is available for cities partnered with Bludot, a business retention and expansion software platform. If you are part of a Bludot-partnered city, Open Rewards provides a simple and effective method of expanding and retaining your customer base, while driving business to the local stores you love.