This two part episode of Pharmacy View podcast explores cutting-edge digital transaction technology that is transforming retail interactions for both merchants and customers. Scott and his co-hosts Andrew and Anthony welcome Technologist Hamish Sadler, who details for them the thinking and pain points behind a groundbreaking platform that tracks merchant and shopper activity without compromising privacy in any way.
The biggest barrier to widespread adoption of earth-friendly digital receipts is reticence about data-sharing on the part of both retailers and consumers. But Hamish explains how xiippy.ai identifies transactional history and spending habits while preserving anonymity. It’s a privacy-preserving, data-rich payment platform that offers in-store and online payment solutions in an entirely secure environment. The technology also offers online dashboards for merchants and free-to-use web-based apps and tools for consumers interested in receiving information and leveraging their data.
Hamish walks us through a number of pain points and describes exactly how the xiippy.ai platform addresses them with its two-way, encrypted communication channel. Although at no point are merchants and their consumers required to exchange any contact details, Hamish offers examples of practical use cases for data such as smart receipts, recall notifications, catalogs, Covid test updates and retail deals.
Learn how this transformational technology is creating a platform that both protects consumers from exposure to hacking and tracking but at the same time offers retail merchants targeted, blind opportunities to offer great customer care and purchasing opportunities.
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Topics Covered:
● A quick overview of Hamish’s digital technology and its impact on management of receipts and other pharmacy business.
● The goals and impacts of encryption from both retail store and consumer points of view.
● Comparative use cases as seen in messaging apps like What’s App or Messenger.
● Digital pharmacy receipts must comply with established best practices and regulation.
● Hamish highlights important pain points that have made secure data-sharing a challenge:
○ Extra data (such as recalls, testing updates, loyalty card number information) cannot be shared because current protocols and design don’t support it.
○ There is a lack of public infrastructure.
○ Retailers and consumers feel uncomfortable disclosing personal information to third parties.
○ Shoppers are often resistant to the steps associated with registering for loyalty or point-based programs.
○ Challenges associated with managing push notifications.
● The in-store check-out process effectively has three steps:
○ Make purchase.
○ Scan a rewards card.
○ Get either a printed or emailed receipt.
● Asking for personal details may have some value for the retailer, because knowing about individual customers is a huge aspect of their business. But respect for privacy is co-equal.
● At the item level, Hamish’s platform can help tailor marketing to individuals who have purchased related items without in any way compromising buyer history or privacy.
● Customer identifiers and the way in which the xiippy.ai platform connects points of sale, patterns and related activity.
● One side of the equation is card identification while the other is identification of the customer.
Key Quotes (Time Stamps):
❏ “Encryption is a paradigm of data transfer whereby the intermediary that transfers the data maintains no knowledge of the data itself.” (05:45)
❏ “You want to eliminate the need to collect personal information, which in certain jurisdictions might actually be illegal.” (09:08)
❏ “We make a completely private two-way path of communication available as part of a payment without any party having to do anything extra.” (11:26)
❏ “What xiippy.ai has done quite uniquely is create a communication pathway for the retailer and all their paying customers without the necessity of collecting the details.” (16:06)
❏ “Being the world’s first and only privacy-preserving, data-rich platform, we do respect the fact that it’s got to be sensible for the customers not to be spammed.” (21:48)
❏ “Without doing anything, the merchant can identify return customers and link previous transactions to a current transaction. That effectively enables a point-of-sale system or a system to connect transactions that in the past were completely disconnected.” (23:17)
Social Media Clips:
1. The role of encryption as it impacts both retail merchant and consumer. (05:45-06:06)
2. How the platform promotes “healthy” communication between merchant and consumer at no risk to anyone’s privacy. (12:35-13:08)
3. How xiippy.ai’s platform addresses resistance to multiple reward cards. (16:24-16:49)
4. Materials previously in print format, such as deals and catalogs, can now be delivered seamlessly to all shoppers at significant savings for the retailer. (20:28-20:45)
5. Xiippy.ai’s overarching priority is to manage data seamlessly and without any vulnerability to hacking or tracking. (22:48-23:02)
About Hamish:
Hamish is a published senior technologist with 20 years of leadership experience in systems and products design, development and delivery. He has led the development of a large set of products upon a wide range of technologies, frameworks, platforms and languages; from the era of Turbo Vision to the era of the Cloud; from systems that control factory machinery to enterprise systems and highly-scalable mobile apps. Hamish has led practices of different sizes (including offshore teams) where his smart work breakdown skills and metric-driven management enabled the delivery of quality outcomes at optimum costs.
Further Resources:
Website: https://www.hamishsadler.com
