- The Noumi platform’s goal is to enhance customer loyalty and retail efficiency while minimizing environmental waste
- For the stores, the benefits are being realized through the financial support of charities and increased customers loyalty
As customers exit a store, they stuff their wallets and pockets with paper receipts that become lost or just thrown in the trash. A UK-based family-run chain of gas stations and convenience stores is offering an alternative with digital receipts to customers in its stores by way of NFC.
The receipt system from Noumi stands alone from the point of sale and offers receipts, loyalty points and coupons based on a sale that can be stored on the shopper’s phone.
The program is more than about convenience or saving paper—when shoppers leave Gardner Garages with a beverage or snack, they are invited to support Huntley Church of England Primary School through NOUMI’s Golden Receipt charity initiative for a neighborhood school.
NFC Use
The program works after customers download the NOUMI App and scan the NFC number on the Noumi device at checkout to receive their digital receipts, win prizes and participate in loyalty programs.
Sales associates scan a product’s barcode and payments take place through the point of sale with cash or credit card as they usual do at checkout. Customers then tap their phone on the NOUMI device to receive their digital receipt. For a few, there is a winning ticket/receipt which turns gold. They are winner of a one-time prize and which could be monetary, discount off the next purchase, a free item such as a cup of coffee, or an offer to donate to a local charity.
Increased Sales
Gardner Garages, located in southwest UK, has been using the NOUMI system since August 2024 for their charity efforts with Huntley Primary School.
For the stores, the benefits are being realized through the financial support and increased customers loyalty, who say they appreciate a supportive cause. “It became a good talking point between staff and customers,” said the store manager Katie Bowden.
The promotion may increase sales averages at the stores about $5.00 per basket as well. “We have seen a better-than-expected uptake and we put this down to the ease of use of the solution which is similar to Apple Pay and Google Pay,” said Bowden. Customers are familiar with the tapping process, and say they like the gamification with the golden receipt, she added.
Creating Relationships with Customers
Going forward, Garage is looking to use the data to help understand its customers and provide a more personalized shopping experience with relevant offer and increase repeat business by offering relevant loyalty programs, Bowden said.
At the center of the solution is a Noumi NFC-based device that is deployed at the point of sale that also connects to the printer. For the retailer, “there’s no integration required,” said Shakir Lincoln, Noumi’s founder.
Three years ago, the tech company was launched around a simple premise: to provide an app where users can collect digital receipts. They expanded the offering based on retailer requests to offer loyalty promotions and gamification which resulted in its multi-purpose tap, said Maria Demetriou, Noumi’s head of sales.
Saving Trees
“When we created Noumi, it was to resolve an eco-problem that wasn’t being addressed,” said Lincoln. People were buying more, resulting in an increase of printed receipts—some stores still have been printing off receipts if the shopper declines one. The ehermal printed receipts can’t be recycled, resulting in hundreds of millions of such receipts going to a landfill.
“The kicker for a lot of companies is we save money because they don’t have to pay for till receipts, they don’t have to pay for the paper either,” said Bowden. “The great thing is you’re saving paper, you’re saving trees and the customer will have that receipt for 12 months. So we’re saving the world, we’re saving retailers some money but we thought ‘well what’s the next stage?’.”
Many businesses want to be out in front with technology adoption. Once the receipt is captured, the app enables users to share receipts with others, for instance to receive refunds for company expenses.
Digital Rewards
Noumi’s digital receipt platform integrates an AI-driven loyalty and reward programs, which includes a white-label app on a device for digital receipts. It is currently in use by seven retailers, including a Scottish football club, and the technology company is exploring partnerships in Africa where there is government interest in eliminating paper receipts.
The Noumi platform has seen a 27.5 percent increase in digital receipt usage due to its “Golden Ticket” feature, which offers customers a chance to win prizes.
The Golden Ticket app works at multiple stores within a shopper’s neighborhoods, so they can use the app when they purchase products at one store and use it again at a restaurant or coffeehouse. The app tracks the kinds of items being purchased by that self-identified customer and can target loyalty coupons according to their interests.
“We can start to provide you with rewards that relate to those products, for a highly personalization journey,” said Lincoln.
Software Connects Stores to Shoppers
The Noumi app uses a software platform known as Nari, which will become more intelligent over time, Lincoln predicted. It can identify the GPS location of the phone and identify the route a shopper uses to reach the store or leave it. The app can then send an offer that’s relevant to a store that is on their route.
“That takes the hyper-personalization to a different level,’ he said.
The short-, medium- and long-term goals are in the works. “Nari is the data platform that underpins some of the features provided by Noumi,” he explained. “If that data about a shopper’s preferences is in the platform (The app) can pull up a report based on what the users asks for from what the data lake. It gives you some really cool data.”
With the app the retailer can reach out to the shopper to start a conversation about products they are interested in. Shoppers who download the app contribute their name, date of birth and e-mail address, “for instance we can trigger a reward for you for your birthday,” said Lincoln.
Golden Ticket
The goal is to create an ecosystem where the stores are talking to their customers, and learning more about them.
“So we invented a concept called the Golden Ticket so every so often whilst you’re using the digital receipts app the logic that’s built into the app will download,” said Lincoln. “Sometimes users will end up with a golden receipt. That could mean a free ticket to watch their favorite team play live.
For a shopper it means a more personalized experience.
“If we add loyalty to it and get consumer data then those three things together working with the retailer,” said Lincoln. “And hopefully the next time you’re in store spend a little bit more so the retailer feels the benefit of a digital program for their digital receipts because you’re spending a little bit more and they get a bit of an extra kick on the revenue.”
Africa and Middle East Expansion
Noumi has multiple partnerships underway with retailers in South Africa, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, where the government will be eliminating paper receipts for retailers to make them more digital countries.
“The amount of interest we’ve had from those regions….It’s clear that that we’ve found our niche market it can only get bigger than it is now because people are realizing that paper is not a good way to go,” Lincoln said. “We’re [globally] a digital society for the most part nowadays so having your receipt on an app is very convenient.”
For retailers who want to add technology-based options to their point of sale (PoS) have been working with Noumi, Lincoln said “it’s brilliant, a match made in heaven.”
Expanding on Self-Checkout
NFC already enables self-check out service for customers, so shoppers are accustomed to an NFC-based process. In the long term, shoppers’ phone can link them to the receipts without needing to tap against a dedicated NOUMI device at the point of sale.
“And that’s our 12 month road map for our tech — to have a contact-free solution, free of any devices for digitizing the receipt,” said Lincoln. At that point the integration between the point of sales becomes as simple as using an API from NOUMI for the Nari application.
“So that’s our long term goal but at the moment we have the hardware, we’re just tracking the digital record of what’s happening,” said Lincoln.
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