I’m a proud Lyoness Business Member, and so I will say something to clarify the process used by Lyoness to start a new market, just because Lyoness has 8 years of full activity in only 2 countries in Europe: Austria (the country of origin) and Hungary. All other countries in the world (+32 and counting with Asia starting this year) are in a kind of pre-launch.

That said, no one could state that Lyoness has few this or that, because the internationalization has stared 3-4 years ago.

Lyoness uses a 3-phase launch model.
First stage is for checking compliance with local (country) law.
This could take several months or even a full year. It depends on the country legislation complexity (like USA and others).
Only after full clearance from lawyers Lyoness goes forward with a second step in phase one. That is to start a group of local (country) members that will help to fund the Lyoness in that country. Yes, to fund, because this first group will be like co-founders of the company in that new country, and for that they will have to do a pre-payment for future purchases – it’s not a starter kit neither an investment. And by doing so, they will have additional benefits from the company when it launches, like participate in the media national campaign for getting simple members (let’s say customers). The number of those firstly members is different from country to country and that requires also time. They are called Premium Members.

So, after that accomplished, Lyoness enter in phase two.
In this phase, besides recruiting more business members (not customers yet), the company opens the local (country) office, recruit staff and start partnership with big companies as well with small companies across the country – this takes time, a lot of time. Also in this phase two Lyoness partnership with online stores, because it’s easier to implement that in the community.

Let me ask you something:
- do you think that brands like Microsoft, Apple, BMW, Shell, McDonald’s, Wall Mart, etc. etc. etc. just become Lyoness partners without their lawyers meticulously check everything about Lyoness? And don’t you think that it requires a lot of time (negotiate and checking)?

And then, when there is a strong community of business members and shops (online and physical) across the country, Lyoness enter in phase three.
In this phase the company launches a strong media campaign for the masses to get customers (people who will use the cashback card only, they will not do the business – but they could do it if they want at anytime in the future).

And only after that campaign the company is full launched in that new country.

Then we will have many members using the Lyoness cashback card everyday because there is also a large community of partners for people to go shop with benefits from Lyoness business model, a very simple one in fact:
- Lyoness get a commission from the shoppers for sending them customers;
- Then Lyoness keep one small part for running the business and distribute the rest to the all members;
- Then the members could use the benefits to go shop again, and this is a perpetual cycle.

So, Lyoness uses the size of the community to get more partners, to get more members, to become even bigger.

1.800.000 members in August 2011, and 2.000.000 members in January 2012: that’s 200.000 new members in five months!
Or 40.000 new members per month!!
150.000 points (stores) of acceptance of the Lyoness cashback card and more than 3.500.000 products and services available for all members in 34 not fully open countries!
Consider that Lyoness is in a pre-launch phase worldwide…

Yes, we already made history in the industry, but that is nothing compared with what will be in the next few years.

Four types of shopping.

Lyoness offers you four options for getting money back in your account with every purchase:

Mobile Cashback: shop with your Smartphone – clever and simple
Cashback Card: a single benefits card for every sector
online shopping: shop online when and how it suits you
cashback vouchers: using original vouchers for Lyoness loyalty partners.

Lyoness Mobile Cashback.
All the Lyoness benefits are now available when you’re ON THE MOVE – Your Smartphone knows how it works!
Lyoness launched the Lyoness iPhone App and the mobile portal in July 2011 and it can be found at m.lyoness.co.uk. Shortly thereafter, in August 2011, Lyoness then launched the Android version. With the mobile Lyoness Portal and the Lyoness Application – App for short – you have everything at your fingertips and are always up to date! With Mobile Vouchers, shopping is now even easier and more convenient. You can now enjoy benefits of Lyoness when you’re on the move on four continents.

Lyoness Cashback Card.
A single benefits card for every sector.
A few days after you register for free, your personal Lyoness Cashback Card will be sent to you. Just show this at the till when you pay for your purchases at Lyoness loyalty partners.

Lyoness online shopping.
Simple, secure, convenient shopping.
Register and log in to www.lyoness.net with your user name and password. Once you have logged in you can find the right loyalty partner by doing a loyalty partner search or by looking at the store overview. Once you have found the loyalty partner you want, click on the logo or on the ‘Shop Online Now!’ button. The selected store will open in a new window and you can then make your purchase according to the relevant terms of use.

Lyoness Cashback Vouchers.
These vouchers have it all.
You can order original Lyoness loyalty partner vouchers via your Lyoness regional office, by telephone, online or by writing to us. The voucher amount will then be deducted from your purchase account. You then use the Lyoness loyalty partner vouchers to pay for your purchases as if it were cash.

Cashback vouchers are also available at numerous vouchers sales points. It is best to phone in advance to check whether the vouchers you want are available in a sufficient quantity.

Firstly, a store needs to be signed up by an IBM, hence another great reason to get on board with us now!

Ok why would a store give a discount for Lyoness shoppers?Some shop keepers might think it’s going to cost too much to offer the discount… I had a store keeper the other day say it would be expensive to offer discounts, but once he realized the benefits he quickly agreed to sign up as an IBM and then later sign up the business, this way he will earn twice as much!

1st reason:
Customer retention… In the current economic climate, it is very important for the store keeper to retain customers. All the business needs to do is hand out a free card that the consumer can use in that store and any other Lyoness partner store. Don’t forget the store keeper will also pick up a reward from Lyoness for introducing that customer of .5% on all they spend, anywhere in any Lyoness store.

2nd reason:
Winning back old clients…

3rd reason:
New customers… Not only will customers see the Lyoness sticker in store windows, they can even use and find the business on the internet through the Lyoness portal. Even if the store keeper does not have a web presence, Lyoness will set them up on the Lyoness portal

4th and main reason for stores to come on board:
Money!!!… The business registers a new customer by handing out the free card, instantly that customer is tied to the store keeper forever. So when that customer decides to shop the shop keeper gets .5% of every dollar they spend! Even with a competitor. At some stage I will blog on some figures on average of how much more they can potentially earn by offering Lyoness customers a discount.

A great reason is to get free consumers from the Media Campaign that Lyoness will run once they Launch in Australia.  Yes you can get on board later but no guarantee that you will be part of the pre launch media Campaign..

Free consumers that will be allocated evenly amongst the IBM members has to be a good enough reason to get involved.

Imagine getting .5% back of your everyday spend! Plus a loyalty bonus with a particular store! As if you can say no to that, somebody the other day said to me that Bankwest offer a 5% cash back on what they spend (now i am not going to get into the bank west card as it is a credit card) so i said, well then get your bill next time you do groceries, use your fly bys card to get your points, use your groceries loyalty points and then pay with your Credit card that gives your cash back and finally swipe your Lyoness cash back card for 2% cash back and Loyalty.

Now it does not stop at that! You also get rewarded by Lyoness if you tell your friends about it, how you ask? Easy! You just tell a friend and once they sign up as your been the referral partner, you then pick up .5% of your friends spending… So lets say you tell 10 friends and they want money for doing nothing, then you will pick up .5% on those 10 who spend, but wait! They then tell more people and you benefit from that too…  Now look at it how you want, but this is a true rewards card, no risk, if you don’t want the cash back when spending, then don’t present your card.  I am sure I will be.

Basic numbers, lets say you give out 10 cards, and they tell 5 people each, then you have 50 x .5% of all spending.. lets assume they spend 1,000 per month, total spend per month amongst these 50 consumers is 50,000, annually that is 600,000.  Exciting thing to know is that you would get .5% of that, which is 3,000 for really only telling a few friends.

I do think this is a once in a life time opportunity, and there are so many more reasons to join for free, but better yet, contact me on why you should consider becoming a IBM member, not only do you get the .5% on yours and friends spending but you get to build teams of IBMs too…. This is exciting when we know that we are going to get allocated consumers from the Australian Marketing Campaign about to launch.

I will leave that for another blog update

Lyoness is the fastest growing business to hit Australia.  Phase 1 has seen the joining of hundreds of International Business Members. This phase has seen lots of professionals get on board ranging from Doctors, Accountants, Lawyers, Financial Planners and many more Industries.

We as International Business Members will have an advantage once the company launches in this country as the UK presentation clearly explains. (The UK presentation can be found in International Business Members Link)

The fact that Lyoness will launch a massive marketing campaign targeting Consumers to join for FREE via Radio, TV and other forms of media will help the community grow. Now it has been said that from this Marketing campaign, all consumers coming on board will be distributed evenly amongst the existing IBM members, making it a fantastic opportunity to get on board early.  Especially when they only request we put a down payment for future purchases, not to pay to get in but a down payment for future purchases which goes to your own internal system.  If anyone needs assistance with this please let me know, I am more than happy to assist and always looking for driven IBM’s.