Hackathon Challenge 2021 — Cashrewards Marketplace
A new product that targets Australian small ecommerce businesses and taps into the post COVID consumer behaviour of shopping small and local.
What’s Cashrewards?
Cashrewards is an Australian cashback rewards program with over 1,600 partnering merchants. Merchants pay Cashrewards a commission when a Cashrewards member makes a purchase at their store online or in-store. Cashrewards will then share part of that commission as cashback and pay it directly into the member’s account.
Hackathon
The goal of our Hackathon challenge is to work within a small team to create an innovative product idea or improvement for the company. We were given one day to work on our proposal.
Our agile team consists of four people across Marketing, Design, Development, and QA. We chose the topic — Create a new way to engage our members so they can earn more cashback.
Research
It started with an idea among the team to create a place where members can discover new products from merchants to increase members’ engagement. As the research lead, I started looking at the current consumer trends in Australia and what our competitors are doing.
Insights
The consumer behaviour in Australia has changed during the pandemic.
- According to the McKinsey industries research, the bushfires and pandemic have driven less financially affected Australians to shop mindfully and cost-consciously, with demand for local brands rising [1].
- The recent Australia Post eCommerce Industry Report 2021 found 57% of Aussie online shoppers want to support local businesses [2].
- Small businesses account for one-third of Australia’s economic output, employing millions of Australians and paying the wages of almost half of Australia’s workforce [3].
Competitive analysis and case study
Many brands and even governments have already jumped onboard into creating campaigns and products that are thriving on this trend.
There is a huge opportunity for Cashrewards to engage our members riding on this new consumer trend.
Problem statement
Cashrewards does not have a product that directly targets Australian ecommerce businesses or taps into this new consumer behaviour of shopping small and local.
Cashrewards Marketplace is designed to feature local ecommerce businesses, so members can discover new brands and increase their engagement.
Solution
1. Merchant onboarding journey
We worked together to create a simple onboarding flow for small businesses based on our existing backend setup. This consisted of four simple steps to sign up for Cashrewards Marketplace.
2. Merchant dashboard
Merchants will have access to a self-serve dashboard to manage their store page and featured products.
3. Cashrewards Marketplace
Cashrewards members can now visit Cashrewards Marketplace to discover local brands and their products.
4. Key shopping journey
Cashrewards members can see the cashback amount on a specific product before clicking through to complete purchase.
Summary
Cashrewards Marketplace is a win-win-win for all.
A win for members:
- Discover local products and brands
- Able to support local businesses and be incentivised for purchases
A win for local business:
- Tap into a highly effective sales channel of over 1M Australian shoppers
- Re-engage past customers with flexible cashback incentives
- Directly incentivise customers without discounting products
- Four simple steps to set up and manage store pages and featured products
A win for Cashrewards:
- Change the current members’ behaviour of using Cashrewards as the last click destination before making a purchase to a place of discovery
- Strengthen the Cashrewards brand identity as the champion for Australian-owned local businesses
- Self-onboarding platform to fast-track merchant onboarding
- Increase visibility of Cashrewards in Australia
Reference list
[1] Colling L., Farmer R., Child J., Feldman D., and Coumau J.P., 2020, ‘Emerging from COVID-19: Australians embrace their values’, Mckinsey Insights [Online]. Available: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/retail/our-insights/emerging-from-covid-19-australians-embrace-their-values#
[2] Australia Post eCommerce Industry Report 2021 [Online]. Available: https://auspost.com.au/content/dam/auspost_corp/media/documents/ecommerce-industry-report-2021.pdf
[3] Australian Retailers Association, 2020, ‘Small and local? Get involved’ [Online]. Available: https://blog.retail.org.au/newsandinsights/small-and-local-get-involved
