In studies conducted across Southeast Asia by Nielsen, a globally recognized data metrics firm, loyalty programs came in as the most important factor for shoppers seeking new pastures.

How important is important, you ask? A whopping 86% to 94% of respondents said that they were more enticed to shop where a loyalty program is part of the deal.

The numbers vary slightly by country, with Vietnam and Thailand leading the pack at 92%–94% of respondents. Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Indonesia followed in with all of them registering above the 86% mark. That’s well above the world average of 84% of respondents agreeing that loyalty programs make them more enticed to stick with a retailer.

However, Southeast Asia’s loyalty programs infrastructure is lagging far behind the rest of the world, and so presents an immense opportunity going forward. The TEE-coin team has built ChatTee, a blockchain-based loyalty program and points exchange, to develop and capture the opportunity present in SE Asia.

We have a strategy for delivering an ideally suited rewards program platform to the region, so let’s dive right in.

Social Capital and Loyalty Programs

Southeast Asia is one of the world’s most concentrated hotspots of social media use. The Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand, and Malaysia all rank within the top ten of world social media use.

Encouraging and capturing loyalty program interest by making shopping with rewards points social is a crucial part of ChatTee’s roadmap milestone development. In 2020, ChatTee will integrate popular social media platforms like Facebook and Instagram so users can share their purchases, interests, wishlists, and merchant reviews.

Additionally, a ChatTee messaging app will be launched alongside the social media integration, allowing users the opportunity to chat with each other as well as merchants. Giving shoppers and merchants a direct line between each other is another route to brand loyalty that is little-explored, and one that is likely to yield promising results for merchants and shoppers both.

The Sky Is the Limit

Back in 2016, Alipay went live with its loyalty program called Ants Forest Program. Available only in China, the program aims to raise awareness for environmental responsibility while also creating brand loyalty. Ants Forest advises users on the eco-friendliness of their purchases before scoring the purchase and giving it a reward of virtual trees.

How successful has the Ants Forest Program been? In the few years since its release, it has grown to include over 200 million users. We believe ChatTee can capture a similar audience in Southeast Asia by creating a similar awareness around the benefits of rewards points.

The key to our rewards program is that ChatTee actually rewards its users when they leave reviews for merchants or opt-in to their advertisements. Those payments are made in TEC, which users can, in turn, spend in-app with participating merchants.

An average of 90% of shoppers in Southeast Asia want their merchants to offer loyalty programs, but only 55% do. ChatTee helping to erase that disparity by giving shoppers a way to convert their rewards points into TEC, which they can then spend with their favorite merchants.