Pumper's Premium Stores pushes electronic payment plan

Drug Store News,  April 23, 2001  by Liz Parks

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GREENVILLE, S.C. -- Pumper's Premium Stores, a 14-unit chain of convenience stores based here, is offering its customers added value in the form of a new marketing program supported by an electronic payment solution that, for the first time, also delivers loyalty card benefits.

Pumper's, the first chain to use an e-payment program that has a loyalty component, began installing hardware and software, called VeriPass, in all its stores last January. VeriPass, based on technology provided by OTI Ltd., is made and marketed by Santa Clara, Calif.-based VeriFone, a division of Hewlett-Packard.

Pumper's began aggressively marketing the program under the brand name Pumper's Pass last fall and has so far enrolled over 8,000 consumers, according to Snookie Scott, Pumper's Pass administrator.

Scott said the chain has been seeing "a lot more customers come back day after day to get their points, and every time they come in, they spend money they might not otherwise have spent with us."

Jim Farish, president of Pumper's, said the program is "helping us extend the brand value of the Pumper's chain, attract new customers, and offer existing customers rewards for each purchase. After only a few months, we're seeing remarkable results."

Scott said Pumper's began rolling out the program in May 2000, had it in about half the chain by September and finished the implementation in all 14 stores last January.

To date, sales in the stores that have had the program the longest have increased significantly, she said, and the average check has also grown substantially.

Supported now only by in-store advertising and outside banner ads, the program is attracting between 25 to 50 new club members per store per week, Scott noted.

To implement the program, Pumper's invested in three components: a high-security, read/write contactless smart card that is contained in a small key fob that Pumper's sells to custmers; YenPass software, which interfaces the smart card with VeriFone's point-of-sale system, allowing the POS to serve as a controller that supports the electronic payments and Pumper's ongoing loyalty marketing programs; and contactless smart card readers that can access the customer's credit card and other marketing information is stored on the smart cards.

In Pumper's case, they have an outdoor VeriPass reader located next to each of their gasoline fueling points, as well as two indoor VeriPass terminals located at the cashier stations inside the stores. The VeriPass terminals have an additional benefit since they 'also act as PlNpads for debit transactions.

Consumers place the key fob in front of the readers or terminals and their payments are automatically credited, as are all the customer rewards that they are entitled to as members of the Pumper's Pass customer loyalty card program.

Rob Randelman, director of marketing for VeriFone's Petroleum convenience store division, said VeriFone is now talking to drug, food and mass market retailers about implementing VeriPass.

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