2 September 2010, Dubai: Pioneers of group-buying in the Middle East GoNabit.com today unveiled the first phase of its rewards program – a financial incentive scheme designed to reward customer loyalty and value evangelism for those who spread the word about its daily deals. Registered users to the website can now earn US$10 of store credit every time a new buyer uses their personalized referral link to make their first purchase on GoNabit.
As the original daily deal website in the UAE and the first group-buying company in the world to offer its web content in Arabic, GoNabit says this latest initiative will further strengthen its value creation proposition for customers.
The referral scheme works by allowing GoNabit subscribers to click on a ‘refer a friend, get $10’ link on the website, generating a unique URL which the customer can send to as many friends, colleagues, family members or social media contacts as they like. For each new user who registers and makes their first purchase via that link, the referrer will get US$10 credited to their GoNabit account, creating fantastic possibilities for loyal customers who promote GoNabit’s deals widely.
“It’s a pretty significant loyalty reward in terms of the amount we are giving away. If you send the link to 10 friends who all join and purchase from it, then you’ve nabbed yourself US$100,” said Dan Stuart, CEO and Co-founder of GoNabit. “Savvy sharers may never pay for a deal again.”
“Our referral scheme reflects the value we place on our nabber community and their central importance to the success of our business. We’re a social commerce site. Social is in everything we do. People have been sharing our deals every day, and we’ve been blown away by the supportive, fun and interactive community that has sprung up around GoNabit. This program is a great way to reward, thank and encourage the continued activity of that community,” Stuart added.
GoNabit’s founders say this new development will allow their strongest supporters to benefit from their direct promotion of GoNabit deals and will also increase the value of the group buying site for merchants, by encouraging word of mouth buzz about each deal.
“This is another tick in the box for merchants who are looking at the marketing potential of our business model. Merchants will be able to see that we actively reward and incentivize people to become value evangelists and spread the word online about their deal,” said Sohrab Jahanbani, COO and Co-founder of GoNabit.
The launch of GoNabit’s referral scheme comes just weeks after the site went live in Arabic, and three months after it began running daily deals in Dubai. GoNabit has put a total of 90 deals up for grabs across its Dubai and Abu Dhabi pages, saving buyers over AED 700,000 in the process. The referral scheme creates even more value for customers who already enjoy significant cost savings on the daily deals and aims to instill an even stronger sense of community spirit and loyalty among the nabber database.
GoNabit is a new way to shop in the UAE. Subscribers opt in to receive a daily email offering them something cool to do in their city with a discount of between 50 to 90 per cent. To successfully “nab” the deal, it must first tip – the point at which a minimum agreed number of purchasers opts into buying the deal. Once the tipping point is achieved and the deal goes live, any GoNabit subscriber can purchase it. The deal is available for 24 to 48 hours, or 72 hours for Thursday’s deal which extends over the weekend.