STEEM As A Loyalty Token: In The Works

Here is something exciting that I came across. It is the most basic of ideas which really align with tokens.

We often talk about onboarding users. The conversation usually revolves around marketing especially on social media. The goal is to expand the reach of Steem across the Internet to attract users.

What is overlooked is the physical world. The idea that is about to be presented is the most basic of use cases for STEEM or any other cryptocurrency.

Most of us are familiar with loyalty programs. Many stores offer them to customers. Stores like Walgreens have cards that points are put on. Credit cards offer points that can be used to purchase an assortment of items. Airlines offer air miles.

Knudz is a retro fashion blog and online store. They are looking to take advantage of the wave in retro clothing.

https://knudz.com/blogs/the-retro-fashion-blog

The organization is using the Steem blockchain as the basis for its loyalty program. Using steem-engine.com, the team created a token called the knudz. Each time a sale is made, the customer is going to be given the option of purchasing a Steem account. This will enable them to receive knudz as a loyalty reward.

Their post can be found here:

https://steempeak.com/knudz/@knudz/knudz-new-retro-clothing-store

This is the power that is being unleashed in this ecosystem. There are two points here I want to make.

A) This shows how important having the ability to create tokens is. @steem-engine puts the Steem ecosystem on another level. The flexibility of tokens on here will be uncovered over the next few months. We are going to see many ideas springing up.

B) While we focus upon the digital world, sometimes onboarding can be done in the physical realm. For example, anyone who owns a restaurant or store could offer the same thing to their customers. Right now, an account costs under a dollar I believe (3 STEEM). This is something an establishment could provide to its loyal customers. Then, a loyalty reward program could be set up.

This is ideal for small businesses who do not have the infrastructure or personnel to manage a large scale loyalty program like the fortune 500 companies. At the same time, people are getting something that has value anywhere STEEM is accepted. If the organization opted for their own token, this will further enhance the brand.

Sometimes we overlooked the simplest of solutions. There are probably millions of reward programs around the world offered for all kinds of different products and services. The transition to a Steem based token is fairly simple. Each time a sale is made, the customer could be given incentive to return by getting the organization's token.

This offers another major advantage to the typical reward programs. While Steem is limited as an ecosystem at the moment, we are seeing it grow. One great thing about the Steem Engine platform is that all tokens created on their can be exchanged for any other and Steem. This means that anyone getting this "loyalty" token will have the ability to use it anywhere within the Steem ecosystem. A simple swap transforms it from that currency to another one.

To me, this is offering one's customers much greater value than just some points that can be redeemed only with that company.

This is counter-intuitive under the system we have. A company does not usually want to create a reward program which benefits another outfit. Welcome to cryptoeconomics. This changes things considerably.

A company that is doing this here offsets the "loss" by that reward being used elsewhere if it holds STEEM. Since this adds value to the ecosystem as a whole, the fact that my reward tokens are used elsewhere in the ecosystem still benefits me.

The fun is just beginning.

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