GAME wins customer loyalty through a cloud based, IBM Smarter Commerce approach

Leading UK PC and video game retailer selects IBM to improve customer engagement and boost growth of online share to 30 percent in channel

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Aug 15, 2013, 01:56 ET

LONDON, Aug. 15, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and GAME Retail Ltd., the UK's leading PC and video games retailer, today announced that GAME will use IBM's cloud-based software to optimise its online marketing efforts and provide personalised product recommendations based on each customer's shopping interests and online behaviour.

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GAME's drive to upsell and increase loyalty within its customer base is powered by technology from IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative. This latest purchase of marketing automation software extends GAME's existing Smarter Commerce investments. In addition, GAME's solution is delivered via IBM's SmartCloud from a set of recently announced Cloud Suite for the C-Suite solutions that are developed specifically to meet the needs of chief marketing officers and other department leaders to help them accelerate innovation and better serve their customers.

With a gaming market potentially worth 83 billion dollars by 2016 and digital games growing by a third, the importance of online engagement for games retailers is clear. "We are looking for our developmental work on our new digital engagement platform to grow our online share to 30 percent in channel by the end of the year," said Andy Grainger, Chief Technology Officer at GAME.

The GAME website receives around 800,000 visitors per week, a fifth of whom are visiting via a smartphone, tablet or other mobile device. GAME needs to be able to analyse online visitors and customers in real-time and act on the information provided by a customer's interaction with the website. This allows GAME to personalise its messages, re-target its visitors and recommend offers and promotions relevant to the individual's online experience.

Following the formation of the new company in April 2012 (after GAME Group PLC went into administration closing half its stores), GAME Retail Ltd. emerged with a requirement to capture increased market share and drive online business from its existing database of 12 million loyalty reward card holders. "We identified the need to deepen our customer engagement and put a clear focus on the UK gaming community as key to our new strategy," said Grainger. "Our aim is to be the first choice for gaming, enabling customers to research, play, buy, and download the latest gaming content both online and in-store."

"Customers are ever more demanding in the ways they interact with and expect to be served by retailers," said Andrew Jackson-Proes, enterprise marketing management (EMM) leader for UK & Ireland, IBM. "Data on how consumers interact with the site will help GAME reduce bounce rates and uncompleted orders, and personalise the customer's visit based on their online activity and previous purchases."

GAME selected IBM Digital Analytics, IBM Product Recommendations and IBM Marketing Center to deepen customer insight, personalisation and engagement.

IBM's Smarter Commerce initiative features software and services that help companies transform their business processes to respond more quickly to shifting customer demands in today's digitally-transformed marketplace. The initiative is driven by CMOs, CIOs, and other C-suite executives who are increasingly looking for ways to bring new levels of automation to marketing, sales and fulfillment to secure greater customer loyalty.

More information on Smarter Commerce can be found at http://www.ibm.com/smarterplanet/uk/en/smarter_commerce/overview/.