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Innovation to drive business growth.
National Book Tokens exist to inspire a generation of book lovers and avid reading fans, delivering the largest book token scheme currently in operation across the UK & Ireland. Their overarching aim is to promote the sales of books within independent book shops, offering an innovative and flexible approach. Having worked with National Book Tokens closely for the past 15 years, their team requested our help with launching an entirely new, innovative product into the market – a technological solution offering customers the chance to purchase a physical, subscription gift card called Bookily.
Unlocking new and recurrent revenue streams.
As the first of its kind, we knew this would be, above all, an innovation project. The subscription gift card would need to allow Bookily customers to purchase a physical subscription card for a relative, friend or family member, then top it up as part of the subscription. Each month, the buyer would need the ability to top up the balance on the card, enabling their recipient to regularly and easily purchase physical books in bookshops across the UK & Ireland – the perfect gift for a child, grandchild, or any avid book lover!


A strategy for success.
A subscription programme like this is full of complexities. As National Book Token’s trusted specialists, we were able to have completely open, honest, conversations with the client. We questioned everything, suggesting functionality the client may not have thought about and developing the most economical model from a technical feasibility point of view. We helped them to short-list payment providers – deciding upon CardStream based on their capabilities. Workshops with National Book Tokens ensured we fully understood what Bookily would be, helping with production definition very early on in the project, and worked closely to define the product scope and parameters.
Technology to power customer autonomy.
We built the system into their existing e-commerce platform, allowing buyers to make an initial payment, repeat payments, manage renewals, change the subscription amount or even make one off top-ups. We had to implement a system that would allow for exception management and take into account individual renewal periods. The recipient portal also needed to give the readers book recommendations, provide them with their account information, balance updates, allow them to request a top up on their account and more
Building for growth in 2022 and beyond.
We have recently soft launched Bookily and are seeing some fantastic result in terms of uptake. We were able to effectively leverage existing investment by utilising our flexible agency platform and architecture and employed a consultative approach to the project that enabled us to develop effective solutions to complex technical challenges. Our extensive gift card experience and long-term relationship with National Book Tokens meant this project ran smoothly and was delivered right in time for the Christmas peak.
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