Monsoon

Monsoon sought to introduce a loyalty program to engage its customers and reward repeat purchases. However, processing around 50,000 transactions daily across physical and digital stores presented significant challenges. The retailer needed a system capable of handling high transaction volumes while managing complex logic for loyalty point calculations, returns, and multi-channel operations.

The return process added complexity. Customers could return items weeks after purchase, requiring recalculations of loyalty points, vouchers, and discounts applied during the original transaction. For example, if a customer purchased multiple items to qualify for a discount but later returned one, the system needed to adjust both the discount and loyalty points accurately. This demanded a robust and flexible solution to handle such intricate scenarios – and one that was able to do so efficiently. Updates when loyalty points were added or subtracted would also need to be performed and displayed as quickly as possible, for the sake of customer experience.

VRP Consulting designed and implemented Monsoon’s loyalty program using a combination of Salesforce and Heroku. Salesforce CRM was used to manage customer data, while Heroku handled the intensive transaction processing and loyalty calculations. Heroku’s seamless integration with Salesforce via Heroku Connect allowed for efficient data synchronization.

The loyalty engine supported rules for points accrual, redemption, and voucher generation. It integrated with Monsoon’s electronic payment terminals (POS systems), ensuring transactions were captured in real-time and linked to customer accounts. This enabled customers to accrue and redeem loyalty points seamlessly, whether shopping online or in-store. The system also extended to Monsoon’s online store, using Heroku’s REST API to provide consistent loyalty calculations across all sales channels. To address performance challenges, VRP Consulting later enhanced the system by eliminating reliance on Talend integrations. Direct API integration between Salesforce and Heroku significantly reduced processing times, enabling near-real-time updates to loyalty points and improving the overall customer experience.

The solution also integrated Salesforce with SVS, the platform managing Monsoon’s physical loyalty cards, and Ometria, a marketing automation tool for personalized campaigns. These integrations provided a unified view of customer interactions and supported targeted marketing efforts.