One of the UK’s oldest markets is tapping into a new ‘payment revolution’ that will help it encourage people to ‘buy local and independent’.
Enfield Market, which is over 700 years old, has become the first venue of its type in the country to encourage its 40-strong army of traders to adopt Droplet, a groundbreaking mobile payment and loyalty app.
Organisers believe it will deliver massive benefits to businesses, as it removes costly transaction fees associated with cards and offers shoppers the opportunity to pay by one simple touch of their phone – removing the need to bring cash out with them or the tiresome process of finding an ATM.
In a more recent advancement, Droplet is now offering all merchants a loyalty platform so that they can offer customers the opportunity to collect rewards with every purchase they make.
More than 25 traders have already signed up and been trained to use the iOS and Android app, with the remaining 15 set to be operational by early 2016.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for Droplet to make a real difference to the recently re-launched Enfield Market,” explained Michael Saunders, who is responsible for rolling the app out across London.
“As soon as I met Ellie Gill from ‘Love Your Local Market’ and The Old Enfield Charitable Trust – the organisation responsible for the regeneration – I knew it would be a perfect match. They wanted to create a vibrant new market experience that focused on buying local and encouraging people to regularly use independents rather than big high street names. We’re just giving them the tools to achieve that!”
He continued: “Traders really like the concept. Yes, it saves them money as they don’t have to worry about card fees, but it’s much more than that. Each business has its own profile page to help with marketing and – through the loyalty platform – can understand the buying habits of regular customers, tailoring special offers or incentives direct to their phone.
“By the beginning of the year, this will be our biggest concentration of Droplet merchants in the UK, quite appropriate that a new payment app is extremely popular in the place where the first ever ATM was installed.”
Set against the architecture of the 14th Century St Andrews Church and Grade II listed Kings Head pub, Enfield Market is a fantastic story of how a charitable trust – with a passion for all things local – can save an historic institution from years of decline.
Following a significant regeneration programme, the Market was re-launched on October 1st to include an 80-seater all-weather food court and a transformed Market House (aka bandstand) that offers an open invitation for buskers to come and entertain the crowds.
It secured 100% occupancy from 40 traders before it officially opened and these range from food artisans, craft specialists and independent fashion retailers to retro music sellers, second hand books and those selling household staples.
Jim Eustance, a trustee from The Old Enfield Charitable Trust, commented:
“Ellie Gill from ‘Love Your Market’ introduced us to Droplet as she felt the app offered our traders a host of practical benefits, but also encapsulated the culture we were trying to create at Enfield.
“Once we realised how easy it was to implement and the fact it really pushed ‘buy local and independent’, we decided to give it our full backing and have been encouraging merchants to take it on mass – the response has been fantastic.”
He went on to add: “This is a real partnership approach. Every new Droplet user that signs up receives £5 to spend and, importantly, £5 is donated to the Trust so that we can continue to make improvements to the market and in the local community.”
Gaspare de Luca owns Tentazioni UK, an Italian deli occupying one of the largest pitches on the market.
“Droplet is a great app. We find it fast and easy to use and our customers are really getting into the habit of paying by phone.
“I have no doubt that it has already increased our sales and I’m hoping the rewards platform will ensure people come back to us time and time again.”
Droplet, which is also operating in other areas across South East London, is working with the Charitable Trust to officially launch ‘Enfield Market Points.’
This builds on the app’s loyalty platform and is intended to encourage people to shop local by offering an umbrella scheme to shoppers so they can collect points for every purchase they make. These can then be converted for ‘Droplet’ cash or special offers that can be redeemed across any of the traders.
For further information, please visit www.dropletpay.com or follow @dropletpay on twitter. More details on Enfield Market can be found at www.enfieldmarket.co.uk
