The easycash Loyalty Solutions, an Ingenico Group company, has developed a new giftcard solution for the nationally operating DIY shop chain Max Bahr. The Max Bahr giftcard has been available in all 78 stores of the Hamburg-based company since February 2010. 

“Particularly in the DIY segment, it is important to promote customer loyalty," said Managing Director Thies Rixen of easycash Loyalty Solutions. “Our giftcards are the ideal solution in terms of a marketing and customer retention tool.”

130 years of service to the customer: Max Bahr

The company was initially founded in 1879 as a workshop for wagon wheels and chassis, and has since developed into one of the leading brands in the DIY sector in Germany. In order to further enhance the positive customer experience at Max Bahr, the concern has now introduced their new Max Bahr Giftcard.

The giftcard in credit card format is available at the check-out counter in Max Bahr stores, and can be pre-loaded with any amount from EUR 5; the card is accepted as payment at any Max Bahr shop nationwide, and payment processing is carried out via the existing card terminal. The initial release volume for the giftcard was set at 100,000 units.

“In the implementation of our new giftcard, we specifically focused on optimised utilisation of existing processing systems. Integrating the concept into our POS system was therefore easy,” stressed Dirk Simon, Head of Internal Sales with Max Bahr. “Since we had previously used gift certificates in paper form, we were thoroughly convinced of the success of the basic concept, and we were looking forward to the additional benefits of a prepaid card – in particular scalability and increased flexibility in terms of the future services that easycash Loyalty Solutions offers.” 

A second edition of giftcards is already in the planning phase.

A lot of flexibility – very little cost

The transaction processing for the giftcard is handled via the giftcard platform 3P by easycash Loyalty Solutions. The web-based real-time system offers a multitude of useful functions with 24/7 availability: standardised or customised reporting or transaction histories for individual cards can be accessed at any time. Some minor modifications of the check-out systems were needed to accommodate the new transaction functions pre-payment, redemption and status request for each and every checkout terminal. These were carried out by the terminal manufacturer, and supervised in an advisory function by easycash Loyalty Solutions.