With American Express in its pocket, Ingram Micro Canada is launching a Partner Smart Rewards loyalty program.
The program offers solution providers points for valuable goods and services accumulated through qualified purchases from the distributor.
The program is free to all Ingram Micro Canada solution providers and has a different structure the its previous loyalty/rewards program launched in 2002.
In Partner Smart, both participating vendors and resellers have the freedom to choose they way they will be rewarded for purchases, said Anthony Francescucci, senior director of marketing for Ingram Micro Canada of Mississauga, Ont.
Vendors can structure a rewards program or campaign and awards points in any way they see fit.
For example, a hardware vendor could offer 10 reward points for each $1,000 of purchases. Another vendor could offer five points for every notebook sold.
Each point will be worth one Canadian dollar. Solution providers can simply use their Partner Smart Rewards Card as they would a debit card, with points automatically deducted from the card each time a purchase is made.
Partner Smart only has four vendor partners: Hewlett-Pacakrd, IBM, V7 and Lenovo, but Francescucci said there is interest from several others.
For the reseller, they can redeem points at any retailer in Canada such as Banana Republic, Old Navy, Pottery Barn, Roots, and Winners.
There are also some online shops such as Amazon.ca and 1-800-Flowers.com. Resellers can also use points for playing golf at Angus Glen golf course in Markham, Ont., or for French cuisine at the Auberge du Pommier restaurant in Toronto.
Hotels will be part of the mix with chains participating such as Delta and Courtyard by Marriott.
If travel is what you want to collect points for, then Partner Smart program offers Carlton Travel Centre, Carnival Cruise Lines and Disney Land Resorts.
“This was an easy solution for us to do and American Express helped us come to market quickly. This is not your traditional rewards program where you get catalogue-based rewards. Rather than limited it to products in a catalogue we wanted to give them the freedom of choice,” Francescucci said.
Francescucci added that Ingram Canada wanted to do something to improve their customers’ experience with the distributor. After some research and feedback from customers and vendor partners through the middle of last year it decided to build the Partner Smart program.
Currently, 250 resellers have already signed up for Partner Smart.
Ingram would like resellers to redeem their points for products at the distributor, but as of now they do not have that capability.
“The intend here is to provide value and this is one way to reward and lower the cost of doing business in the channel. We feel we can do that with this program,” Francescucci said.
He added that this kind of a program could help a vendor get noticed in the channel community.
All program participants will receive a bi-monthly e-newsletter containing all new Partner Smart Rewards offers.
To register for Partner Smart visit http://partnersmartrewards.ca
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