Go beyond traditional loyalty programs with eIMSky

A young Sri Lankan start-up eIMSky Business Solutions, specialising in real-time tracking of objects and individuals using RFID technology, recently launched a new technology platform that enables service oriented industries like retail or tourism to offer novel next generation loyalty programs.

When you shop at a large supermarket with your loyalty card at present all you get is a small discount or a few loyalty points at the checkout counter. But imagine stepping into a retail store, where remote sensors immediately identify who you are, with the help of a tiny RFID (Radio-Frequency Identification) tag pasted on to your next generation loyalty card.

The store can design surprise discount offers on your favourite brands of cosmetics, clothes or other products based on your past purchasing history. As you pass through interactive digital signboards inside, the store will turn into your personalised shopping assistant highlighting the latest arrivals from your favourite brands, accessories.

Customers can access all this information through a natural user interface with touch-less screens that can be activated with hand gestures or voice commands, while shopping. These smart digital signboards help companies to channel the right information to the right consumer, without interrupting their shopping experience in a fun and easy to use manner. If the customer consents, the store can also send updates about special offers to their mobile phone app, while browsing through the shop.

A Sri Lankan start-up launched eIMSky was about a year back, and has been developing a unique technology platform called the eIMSky Bridge Platform that enables companies to easily integrate this technology, which is being widely adopted to their existing IT infrastructure. This enables companies to leap forward into the next generation of customer service experience offerings, raise standards, save time and increase profitability.

“This groundbreaking technology platform will help create strong loyalty programs by providing a simple yet effect way deliver personalised and customised offers to loyal clients,” said eIMSky founder Viranga Kekulawala. “A good customer experience leads to brand loyalty.”

Customer loyalty programs are not limited to the retail sector. For example, in the hospitality sector, when you walk into your favourite restaurant with your RFID enabled loyalty card, the restaurant manager will immediately get a notification to mobile device about your arrival. This would allow them to quickly retrieve information your food and beverage preferences, history of allergies and make special arrangements on important dates like anniversaries and birthdays.

RFID is a fairly new technology in Sri Lanka, with only a handful of companies competing in this space but adoption of RFID technology is accelerating. According to Dean A. Scarborough, CEO of Avery, which is one of the largest RFID device manufacturers, it took the company about six years to ship their first billion RFID inlays, but they shipped the second billion in less than 18 months.

Touch-less digital sign boards, accessed using a natural user Interface is another new technology wave that is revolutionising the way people experience and interact with various types of content, including product catalogues, magazines, food menus or even online video.

eIMSky has made headway with several organisations in the retail, tourism and apparel space and this technology would soon be available in Sri Lanka.

eIMSky Business Solutions participated in Asia’s only regional conference for RFID over the past two years. Their team consists of RFID+ certified professionals and IT professionals with over a decade of experience in the IT sector in Sri Lankan and UK with domain knowledge in multiple industry sectors.  

The eIMSky Bridge platform for RFID is vendor neutral, which allows clients to decide on the type of RFID hardware needed based on their budget and other requirements. It is a Sri Lankan company with a strong after-sale service (system maintenance, future enhancements etc.) and product training and also provides consultancy on optimising existing business processes to deliver a next generation customer experience.