CHICAGO — AlleyCat Comics has an unorthodox approach to rewarding frequent customers: Shoppers who hit 50 purchases get to punch a store employee in the stomach.
The rewards program is new, so the prize remains unclaimed. But because future winners will have spent a lot of money, “I guess I can take a shot in the gut,” said store owner Nicholas Idell, who opened the business with his wife four months ago.
Their rewards program may be an extreme example of the creative tactics local merchants are employing to convert casual customers into repeat ones. But the store’s experiment, which also taps into technology from a Chicago-based startup called Bellyflop, is part of a larger push by startups to put a fresh spin on loyalty programs. Such efforts to improve customer retention address a common problem faced by local businesses that have dabbled in the young but fast-growing phenomenon of daily deals, powered by companies such as Groupon and LivingSocial. The Associated Press
