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As a crypto enthusiast, Ethereum may not be the new term for you. Over the last several years, this blockchain architecture has grown in popularity, allowing Smart Contracts and Decentralized Apps to be written and run without any downtime, control, or intervention from a third party. However, as time flies, Ethereum is forced to contend with the market's severe rivalry from other blockchain networks. Solana Blockchain, for example, has risen to become the most popular blockchain at the present. Because of its speed and reported throughput of 65,000 TPS (transactions per second), it is one of the world's first Web-scale Blockchains and quickest networks. So, let's follow this blog to get a better understanding of this new concept - the Solana network!

1. What Is Solana Blockchain?

Solana is a web-scale, open-source blockchain protocol that supports smart contracts, including non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and a wide range of decentralized applications (dApps). This high-performance blockchain delivers the fully decentralized, secure, seamless, and highly scalable infrastructure that DApps and decentralized marketplaces will require. It makes use of a combination of ground-breaking processing technologies that can handle thousands of nodes, allowing transaction throughput to expand proportionally with network capacity. Thanks to its speed and low transaction costs, Solana currently has a potential peak capacity of 65,000 transactions per second and has become one of the most widely utilized blockchains today. Besides, the Solana ecosystem also grows by leaps and bounds, which can be proved by some Top Solana DApps like 1Sol, Serum, Audius, Hedgehog, Anchor, and Raydium.

Native to Solana’s blockchain is the SOL token, which provides network security through staking as well as a form of payment. This token is now ranked #8 on Coinmarketcap and the Solana token price is $87,84 (as of 25 Feb 2022). Along with SOL, there are many other Top Solana Ecosystem Tokens by Market Capitalization, such as Tether, Terra, Chainlink, etc.  

Let's take a look at Solana token on Coinmarketcap

2. Uncover Top Key Innovations Of Solana Blockchain

a. Proof Of History (POH)

It is a clock that runs before consensus in the Solana Blockchain, which addresses the clock problem in today’s blockchain-based networks. Previously, Bitcoin used the Proof-of-work (PoW) consensus mechanism, whereas Ethereum and other blockchain blockchains such as Qtum, Cosmos, and NEO alter to the Proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. All these mechanisms cause a transaction time issue, which accounts for discrepancies in. confirmation times for transactions on the Bitcoin network. Such differences in transaction time could lead to inefficiencies in transaction processing.

However, Solana has used a completely new timekeeping technique known as proof-of-history, which has been shown to be superior to the majority of the aforementioned measures. In case you may ask “What is Proof of history Solana?”. So, Proof of History is a computation sequence that can be used to cryptographically verify the passage of time between two events. It employs a cryptographically secure function that must be fully executed in order to generate the output, as the outcome cannot be predicted from the input.

b. Tower BFT

Solana public blockchain runs a consensus mechanism called Tower BFT on top of Proof of History, which is a PBFT-like algorithm that uses the synchronized clock authorized by PoH to achieve network transaction consensus. Tower Consensus, unlike PBFT, values liveness over consistency. Nodes, like PBFT, increase their timeouts exponentially to reach an agreement, but because the ledger is also a trustless source of time, nodes can observe and assess the timeouts of all the other validators in the network.

c. Turbine

To transmit blocks (communicate blocks between validators) independently of consensus, Solana employs a distinct but linked protocol called Turbine, which was inspired primarily by BitTorrent and is intended for streaming. It is a block propagation protocol that divides data into smaller increments, making data transfer between nodes easier. Turbine assists Solana in addressing bandwidth issues and increasing the overall transaction processing speed of the network.

d. Gulf Stream

As an innovative feature that enables Solana Blockchain Open-source to reach 65,000 TPS, Gulf Stream works with the mempool concept to act as a waiting room for the next trade, allowing forward transactions to be validated before the trade is completed. This enables network validators to execute transactions ahead of time, hence reducing confirmation time and the memory requirements on validators from unconfirmed transaction pools.

e. Sea Level

Another unique feature that makes many Blockchain experts show their preference for Solana Blockchain is Sea level, which has never existed in any other blockchain network. The term "sea level" refers to the ability of validators to run Smart Contract code in parallel. To illustrate, consider a human who must complete several tasks in a single day. To complete all of the tasks, he or she must complete them in the correct order. However, if you have a duplicate of yourself, you could complete such tasks concurrently. In that case, you're using sea level, which Solana accomplishes with its smart contracts. Every time Nvidia doubles the number of SMID lanes, the Solana network's computational capacity will double. To summarize, Sealevel enables concurrent transactions on the same chain, resulting in a faster network runtime.

f. Pipelining

Pipelining, which refers to the process of routing a stream of input data to various pieces of hardware for processing, is a common technique in CPU design. This allows quick transaction information to be replicated and validated across network nodes more quickly.

On the Solana network, the Transaction Processing Unit (TPU) performs data fetching at the kernel level, signature verification at the GPU level, banking at the CPU level, and writing at the kernel level. The TPU has already accumulated the next batch of packets and is beginning to sign them by the time it starts sending blocks to the validators.

g. Cloud Break

Simply scaling computing isn't enough. Memory used to keep track of accounts soon becomes a bottleneck in terms of both size and access performance. Therefore, Solana Network has come up with Cloudbreak, a state architecture optimized for concurrent reads and writes across a RAID 0 configuration of SSDs. Each additional disk expands the amount of storage available to on-chain programs while making concurrent reads and writes between the network’s 32 threads possible.

h. Archivers

On Solana, data storage is delegated from validators to Archivers, a network of nodes. Archivers do not take part in consensus meetings. The state's past is fragmented into many pieces and erasure-coded. Small sections of the state are archived by archivers, who will be asked to confirm that they are storing the data required on a regular basis by the network. Solana makes use of Proofs of Replication (PoRep), which are largely influenced by Filecoin.

Top Key Innovations Of Solana Blockchain.

3. SotaTek’s Successful Solana Projects

Recently, SotaTek utilized Smart Contracts to develop SolBank, the most private and non-custodial Solana browser wallet. This platform allows users to conceal the amounts and origins of cryptocurrency held. This is made possible by implementing a Solana zero-knowledge privacy solution: a smart contract that accepts transactions in SOL (and, in the future, SPL tokens), allowing the amount to be withdrawn later with no reference to the original transaction.

Visit more: https://solbank.app/

Additionally, our Blockchain Experts have a chance to build Solminter, a solution to the SPL ecosystem. Solminter offers its users the following utilities:

SPL minting and management

NFT minting and management

Ecosystem integrations

Visit more: https://solminter.com/

4. Final Thoughts: Get Started With Solana Blockchain

To conclude, it is understandable why Solana Blockchain is a great, powerful platform with tons of potential that appears to be a terrific fit for any DeFi project. Solana is a fast network with a revolutionary Proof-of-History consensus methodology, as well as sub-second block times enabling fast verification and low fees. Any good project that prefers excel requires quick confirmation times and a minimal network overhead.

Software Outsourcing Service has gained global popularity over the past few years. If previously, China and India were known as the leading nations in this field. However, everything has changed and several countries, including Vietnam, are becoming a growing market in the IT Outsourcing Field. Thousands of organizations and businesses are looking to outsource their projects in this country. But why is it? Why is the Vietnam market highly appreciated as a promising destination for foreign investors to make a move on? Let’s check it out to know more!

1. What Is IT Outsourcing?

Outsourcing can be described as a contract between a business and a third-party provider. In this contract, IT Outsourcing would take the responsibility of handling technology functions, such as software development, infrastructure solutions, and software support. There are 2 main cooperation types that clients can choose when reaching a B2B outsourcing company, including Offshore Development Centre (ODC) and Project-based.

According to the Statista report, the revenue of IT Outsourcing Services is predicted to reach US$359,832.3m at the end of 2021, and this figure continues to increase to result in a market volume of US$551,956.3m by 2026. The accelerating trend implies the widespread adoption of outsourcing teams among businesses, be it a small start-up or a big corporation. This can be explained by the fact that the advantages of outsourcing can be substantial, ranging from cost savings and efficiency gains to greater competitive advantage.

2. 05 Reasons To Choose Vietnam For IT Outsourcing

a. Competitive Cost

Vietnam can offer other global enterprises cost reductions, making it an appealing choice for any business all over the world. To prove it, the CIO magazine claimed that the cost of outsourcing development in Vietnam is 90% lower than that of US service. The savings are even 50% compared to China and 30% to India. You may have been worried that low-cost offerings are linked to poor quality. However, this situation is different in Vietnam. Not only can you pay a reasonable price but you also get high-quality software developers when choosing to outsource to Vietnam.

b. Top Professional IT Engineer Workforce

Vietnam is no doubt a promising location for seeking a reliable B2B Outsourcing Company because of the dynamic and talented labor. According to TopDev’s report, Vietnam has about 400.000 IT Engineers and over 50.000 graduated IT Students from over 153 IT Institutions per year. Besides, in order to meet the ever-growing demand for human resources, many IT firms have collaborated with education institutions to set up the training courses, give scholarships in order to improve the Vietnamese Tech Talented. Such talents also have an opportunity to study abroad in the US, UK, and other developed nations to broaden their knowledge in the technical field.

With such a great foundation in education, it can be assured that such graduates can contribute their innovative and creative thinking to the IT field. Moreover, the good fortune of having a group of workers in the ‘golden age’ also provides great opportunities for even further development and advancement in this field. To sum up, Vietnam can provide not only quantity but also quality for the software outsourcing market both in the domestic and international one.

c. Cutting-Edge Technology

In terms of technology, Vietnam - one of Asia’s fastest-growing economies - is making its mark on a global stage. The country is leading with a number of cutting-edge technologies, such as Blockchain, IoT, AI & Machine Learning, Cloud Computing, etc. Whatever technology your businesses want to apply, the Vietnamese Outsourcing Company can adopt. This can be achieved thanks to the technical expertise through studying as well as the hands-on experience working on complex large-scale projects accessed by millions of users throughout the world.

d. English Proficiency

Language can be a huge challenge as far as success in the IT industry is concerned but in Vietnam, the language barrier has steadily been abolished in recent years. Apart from the mother tongue, almost all graduates are exposed to a second language, especially English, regardless of any degree, making Vietnam stand at the 13th ranking in the Asian area in terms of English proficiency. This also means that the outsourcing team, be it a project manager, sales team, or software developers, would have no barrier in using English and are often greater than the national average. Therefore, foreign businesses and Vietnam IT Outsourcing Company can easily communicate with each other, have further discussions, and understand the requirements, hence, successfully launching the final product. This, along with a number of other factors, certainly positions Vietnam among the top IT outsourcing countries in the world.

The English proficiency allows Vietnam IT Outsourcing Company to easily communicate with foreign partners.

e. Social Stability

Compared to India’s Kashmir wars with Pakistan or the 2006 Thai coup, Vietnam is considered one of the most secured Asian nations. According to Minority Rights, 95% of citizens are ethnically Vietnamese and more than 80% of them do not belong to any specific faith group at all. Such statistics have proven that Vietnam is really free of religious conflict. Furthermore, Vietnam was also listed at the 12th ranking as the safest among the Asia-Pacific Region by Global Peace Index 2020. So, it can be said that Vietnam is a stable socio-economic and political situation country, and especially, its strategic location in the Asia Pacific region, which can create a hospitable business environment for outsourcing.

3. Why Choose Outsourcing Service In SotaTek JSC?

Established in 2015, SotaTek is the largest part of Sota Holdings, a global Software Development as a Service and IT consulting group with headquarters in Vietnam and international offices in the US and Japan. Since its establishment, we have served a huge number of global enterprises in various industries, including Retail, Health Care, Finance, Education, Media and Entertainment.

As a leading Outsourcing Company in Vietnam, our 550+ dedicated team has the capability and experience to conquer any size of outsourcing projects with a 30% reduction cost in the planned time in order to come up with the results that would exceed your expectations. No matter what type of custom development service you require, Web & Mobile App Development, Blockchain Technology, Odoo ERP, AI & Machine Learning, or Cloud-based Services, SotaTek can provide you with the best solution to meet your specific demands.

In the digital age, the number of Tech Vendors is increasing dramatically, which creates various choices for any business and brand. However, it also brings about the challenging task for them to pick the right and reliable one who can satisfy their needs. Besides, the software is at the heart of every successful organization, be it a small startup or a multinational corporation, therefore, when choosing a Software Development Partner, many issues are taken into consideration, such as experienced leadership, costs and quotes, developers’ expertise, location, etc. Among various criteria, the most important one is no doubt the Industry Experience. Why does it matter? Let’s check it out to learn more!

1. Why Looking For A Software Development Partner?

Actually, a business has to search for a Software Development Provider in many situations. The most popular reason is that they may want to build a new digital solution, such as a mobile application or a web-based one. At that time, it is necessary to initially clarify which outsourcing model to choose. Do they want the IT partner to provide a full team, ranging from a project manager to front-end, back-end developers and QAs? Or their business would appoint a manager to supervise all tasks of the outsourcing team?  

A popular reason when finding a Software Provider is to build a new digital solution.

Besides, they can also find a trusted IT partner to upgrade the existing software product their business already has. For example, if they have an outdated mobile app, a Software Development Partner could integrate some lacking features or cutting-edge functionalities in their existing one, such as adding AI Chatbots, Blockchain, IoT, and other technologies, depending on their needs.

2. Why Is Industry Experience Important In Finding A Tech Vendor?

Before kicking off a partnership with a specific vendor, make sure that the company has hands-on experience in your industry. Wonder yourself first with some questions: Are you planning to build a FinTech app?, Or do you want to launch a platform making use of the latest PropTech trend?,... Each industry comes with a slightly different technological paradigm so it is necessary to take time to search for a company that has already done similar projects before. Since such developers have domain knowledge, they can take advantage of their previous experiences within your niche, handle your specific vertical, implement the right solution and ensure that the final software development meets all the required regulatory standards.

For instance, a Healthcare Software Development Partner needs to understand some basic regulations related to HIPPA compliance. Companies in the financial sector should be able to avoid storing credit card information on their website. Moreover, in case you are considering releasing a social media campaign, you should work with Tech Vendor that knows how to connect with an audience that may be in entirely different time zones. Likewise, a real estate agent would need a completely different approach from e-commerce sites. To sum up, not every business and sector is the same, and the solution is not, either.

3. How To Know If The Software Development Partner Has Experiences In Your Niche?

There are a variety of ways to check out whether the Tech Vendor you are considering specializes in your sector or not. Here they are:

Check Website: Starting with the basic step by reading the information on the Vendor’s website. It is undeniable that no IT companies want to hide their skills, in contrast, they are likely to show as much as they can to attract new clients. So, dig deep into their website to know more about some highlight points, such as annual reports, industry experience, blogs and news, and etc.

Portfolio: The Software Development Provider tends to display all of their projects in the portfolio. By exploring it, you may know which industry they have catered to before (healthcare, retail, real estate,...). Moreover, the portfolio also shows how this firm has handled various challenges to successfully launch the final products that can meet the clients’ demands. They would mention the technology stacks and tools the developers effectively utilized and the testing processes so that you can see if they are suitable for your project.

Industry Award: Which awards and recognitions have the vendor earned? In particular, look for specialized industry awards given by famous organizations or reliable ranking lists, such as Recognition in the Healthcare sector.

Degree of Industry Focus: Some companies have developers or divisions that specialize in certain industries. So, it is highly recommended to review the provider’s senior management biographical profiles for evidence of this focus. Don’t forget to check if the vendor’s staff have earned specialized certifications and credentials in your industry as well.

Word of Mouth Referrals: Another useful step is to ask for client references or your industry peers. Such references are exactly the authentic feedback to know how well a Tech Vendor performs in your sector.

After going through all of the aforementioned processes, you may find one or two reliable and trustworthy partners. To foster your trust once again as well as to pick one, you can feel free to pick up the phone and communicate directly with this Software Development Partner. Prepare questions in advance and go through each point. Documenting your conversations during the selection process will lessen the risk of unpleasant inquiries from the audit later. Finally, you must have chosen a Tech Vendor who is ready to accompany you to prepare for the upcoming projects.

You can communicate directly with Software Development Partner to foster the trust once again.

4. Final Thoughts

Finding a Custom Software Development Partner for your project has never been easy. Instead, it takes time and a lot of effort to approach the right one who can assist you with any problem you may face. However, once you have initiated a successful and long-term partnership with a Tech Vendor, you may see your business elevate to a high level. So, choose wisely!

In the cutting-edge technology area, utilizing the latest technologies to optimize key business processes, take care of customers and boost revenue is no longer a luxury. Instead, it is considered as a worthy price for the business’s success. Therefore, a platform called Salesforce CRM system has existed to solve the aforementioned problems and gain more popularity than ever before, with countless vendors and solutions for both small and large firms. According to Buyer Zone, 91% of companies with more than 11 employees now use this software development. So, why is it so popular? Let’s find out on this blog!

1. What is Salesforce CRM?

CRM, which stands for Customer Relationship Management, is a platform to manage the relationship between a firm and its clients. It is undoubted that customers are one of the most important and valuable assets to the businesses, which determines the success and development of a company. Therefore, the CRM system was created to manage a centralized database of clients in one place, helping businesses use such information to improve customer experience, satisfaction, retention and service.

Adopting a cloud-based platform for Customer Relationship Management, Salesforce is considered one of the top Open Source CRM tools nowadays, allowing businesses of all sizes and complexities to maximize their efficiency and hit growth targets. Because all data and information are stored in the cloud, Salesforce is accessible from any device at any time. Moreover, it also allows for live data tracking and accurate real-time updates.

2. Reasons To Choose Salesforce As Your CRM

a. Customer 360-Degree View

By giving access to essential data of the customers and interaction history, Salesforce CRM offers hassle-free contact management. It means that businesses can easily acknowledge the clients’ contact details, their backgrounds, and other customer-related personal data, which facilitates your businesses to have a better understanding of them. Moreover, this CRM System also leverages clients’ data from social platforms, such as Facebook, LinkedIn as well as their emails, granting you further insight into what makes your leads and existing clients interested. After having a broad picture of the clients, the cloud-based infrastructure of Salesforce CRM offers the users to store, monitor and classify for future references and share such data across various departments within a firm. Thanks to this feature, even small businesses or big corporations can utilize it to create marketing campaigns and sales strategies that are tailored to clients’ preferences.

b. Dynamic Dashboards And Reports

The most significant advantage that businesses can gain from integration with Salesforce CRM is reporting and analysis into sales activities, pipelines, and forecasting. Although it is necessary to evaluate the current situation as well as monitor, track and predict the ongoing sales of individual businesses, it is seemingly hard to handle everything when the tasks pile up. However, with Salesforce CRM, you can get a comprehensive view of your Sales Pipeline just at one glance and understand how your firm is performing in the market. This process is completely automatic, which is not only time-saving but also reduces human error.

The dynamic dashboards and reports at Salesforce system.

At Salesforce System, data can be visualized based upon the requirements. For example, if the director requested to look at the interaction of people on their website, the Salesforce CRM can offer data such as click-through rates, time people spent on the website, interactions on posts, and etc. Besides, a Project Manager can also set up the dashboard to monitor data related to the timeline of the projects, durations, output of each sprint, or working hours of their teams. To sum up, dashboards give users quick acknowledge of the workflow without having to dive into various documentation or online reports. After tracking and analyzing such information, the forecast could be made to plan the next strategies.

c. Scalability And Customisation

CRM software development is an investment. Therefore, not only should this platform be suitable for the present requirements of the businesses but also its future needs as well. Luckily, the Salesforce Open Source can meet that demand. In case you wonder “What is Open Source?”, Open Source means “source code” is publicly available. This code may be distributed, modified, and redistributed by users according to their needs. So, it can be said that whether to take care of the firm’s current customer relationships or a customer base that builds over the next many years, this open Source CRM software still has the ability to scale up and customize change.

d. Integration With Current Infrastructure

Although this platform offers a wide range of default functionalities, it can be made even more functional and easy to choose the features as per your business needs. This can be explained by the fact that the Salesforce system is built to blend seamlessly with other software ecosystems through powerful open APIs, the application programming interface connecting between computer programs. Such API Integration facilitates cooperation with other third-party services and platforms, merges various software capabilities, hence creating a unified informational space. For instance, you can integrate with LinkedIn to find out all business-related information about prospects, including job titles, emails, phone numbers, and keep it safe in one place. Or you can even connect with Calendar, JIRA, Odoo ERP system, Odoo CRM... to manage the project and team members effectively.

e. Improve Team Collaboration

The Salesforce CRM system can be described as an expansive ecosystem, which includes customers and your team members from project managers, sales teams, developers, and etc. This platform enables users to work and exchange data seamlessly through cloud computing. Anytime your customers update information, feedbacks or requirements, your businesses can immediately check them in real-time. Moreover, as a cloud-based platform, all of such data can be consolidated in one base, making it hard to be misplaced or lost. So, it can be said that with Salesforce CRM built-in tools, multiple people can work on one file and follow up the progress simultaneously.

Integration with Salesforce CRM can improve team collaboration.

3. Final Thoughts: Get Started With A Reliable Salesforce CRM Provider

To wrap up, when it comes to cloud-based CRM software, Salesforce is undoubtedly a leading solution to support customers, sales and marketing teams. Thanks to this platform and cloud-based data storage, you can have a better understanding of your clients, leading to better messaging and outreach. As a result, customer service improves, and profits increase.

Different industries across the world are struggling with ways to evaluate their brand names, retain existing customers and boost profits. In the cutting-edge technology area, it can be said that nothing is better than a Mobile Loyalty App, which has completely transformed the whole market and changed it for the better. Not only serving big and famous brands, Loyalty App for Small Business is also becoming popular. To catch up with this trend, many businesses have searched for a reliable Loyalty App Provider to adopt this advanced technology. But which sectors can gain the most benefits from this software? Let’s find out in this blog!

         Related: 3 Reasons Why Businesses Need A Loyalty Program App

1. Retail

The retail market, which holds a huge number of daily transactions, is considered one of the leading industries. In the past, customers always relied on brick and mortar stores for essential needs, ranging from buying food to shopping for clothes. However, to serve customers' ever-growing needs, many retailers have turned to loyalty app development with their POS (Point of Sale) linked Odoo ERP software to stand out from the competitors as well as gain profits.

According to a study by E&Y, which was conducted in 2015, Digital Rewards Programs in the Loyalty App raised the annual revenues of large chains in the retail industry by approximately 18%. Besides, the profit margins also experienced an upward trend even though the advertising expenditures declined remarkably. To know more details about the significance of loyalty apps to retailers, here are some outstanding points:

Increase repurchase rate with Digital Rewards Programs: The reward-based and redemption systems are at the heart of the loyalty app, which acts as a huge motivation for your customers to come back to your store and use the rewards on the next order, hence increasing the repurchase rate.

Decline acquisition costs with a referral program: Word-of-mouth is no doubt the most reasonable but effective marketing strategy. According to Nielsen, 92% of consumers believe recommendations from friends and family over all forms of advertising. Therefore, a loyalty app development integrated referral program (eg. invite 5 friends, receive $10) would definitely significantly lower the acquisition costs but still increase the outcome of efforts by gaining lots of new customers and at the same time, creating brand ambassadors.

Increase the Average Order Value: One of the final goals of the mobile loyalty app is still to increase revenue and profits, and the most effective way is to raise the average order value (AOV). The loyalty app allows retailers to offer various perks, such as free shipping, for orders above $20 for instance, which motivates customers to spend more to gain this discount offer.

Many retailers have turned to loyalty app development with their POS linked Odoo ERP software.

An example of a successful retail mobile loyalty app is NikePlus, which offers a fully personalized experience, such as product discounts on customers’ special occasions or free presents after completing a purchase. The more frequently they reach the Nike mobile app, the more tailored to their needs their loyalty program becomes. Besides, this mobile app also offers many rewards, such as Free shipping, Free merchandise in their stores in exchange for points and Access to products available exclusively to NikePlus members,...

2. Food and Beverage (F&B)

These days, the number of restaurants or coffee shops has gone up dramatically, and customers always want to try new places, different cuisines and different types of drink. This creates a big challenge for such F&B owners, making them try many solutions and marketing programs to retain customers. Luckily, a Digital Loyalty Card App can tackle this problem by bringing about some conveniences for customers as well as brands:

Reduce the long order queues: The order feature in Mobile Loyalty App helps restaurants or coffee shops manage their peak business hours effectively as it allows users to place an order in advance and set the pick-up time.

Bring the brands closer to M-Commerce: Customers nowadays are more likely to make a purchase if brands provide them with a favorable cashless experience. Thanks to the various payment gateways in Loyalty App, customers can choose an appropriate one to suit their needs.

Run a highly specific marketing campaign: If customers have not dropped by your brands for a long time, you can send them personalized discount offers through Loyalty App.

Simplify Reviews: F&B is an industry that customers tend to find reviews most. Therefore, instead of making them surf for various websites or apps, businesses can build review sections and encourage users to leave some thoughts. This would let new customers easily reach such reviews as well as help the brands acknowledge the existing customers’ experience, then improve the services and products.

To highlight the necessity of a Loyalty App Development in the F&B Industry, Starbucks Digital Rewards System, which is considered one of the best software, contributed to 41% of their revenue increase. The Starbucks app, which has had 16.3 million active members recently, offers great incentives for continued use, such as free drinks and cakes, early access to new products, and custom offers based on personal preferences. Also creating a sense of urgency to prompt customers to keep coming back, Starbucks only gives them 12 months to earn or use “stars” to reach the next tier or stay at the top tier.

       Related: Loyalty App: An Incredible Method To Gain Huge Revenue

3. Travel and Hospitality

The travel and hospitality sector which incorporates several services such as hotels, airlines, car rentals,... is one of the most wide-ranging industries in the world, with the retail value of hotels alone adding up to more than $495 billion. Besides, according to a report by Deloitte, two-thirds of frequent travelers stay at the same hotel brand for most of their travel days, regardless of location. Therefore, to prioritize the customer experience and gain ROI, a Mobile Loyalty App is an appropriate answer.

Attract customers by associating with partners: The travel and tourism industry is said to be the first sector to accept other partners to enrich their Digital Loyalty Programs. Normally, businesses can only offer customers a discount on the next flight after flying X km with the airline. However, when connecting with partners, businesses can give their users a pleasant experience such as free car rental, hotel room upgrade, reduced ticket prices, and etc.

Stand out from the competitors: Actually, Loyalty App Development in the hospitality industry is still limited in number due to lack of its advantage awareness. However, 85% of consumers of this field responded that they are more likely to choose a venue that has a rewards program. Therefore, having your own Digital Loyalty Card Apps to create a whole ecosystem for customers would put your brands a step ahead of your competitors.

Break language barriers: What would you do if the majority of calls you received in a day were from international tourists who do not speak the same languages as you? Such inconvenience can be avoided thanks to the Loyalty App. Users can easily switch between languages to fit their knowledge by providing multilingual features within your brand’s mobile loyalty app.  

An example of the most rewarding Loyalty App in this sector is Hilton Honors, a hotel booking app with over 5 million downloads. This software development not only delivers loyalty programs and rewarding points but is also integrated with many features to enhance customers’ experiences, such as allowing users to View and manage their reservations, Use your device as a room key and check-in/ out from the app,...

Mobile Loyalty App allows using your device as a room key.

4. Final Thoughts

There is no doubt that Mobile Loyalty App is gradually changing the battle for customer care in the digital age and is essential in many business fields. The sooner you spice up your brand with a Loyalty App, the better it would be.

Customer Loyalty is a battleground various businesses want to master. According to research, acquiring new customers costs five times more than retaining the current ones. Besides, existing customers are 50% more likely to try your new products as well as spend 31% more than fresh ones. Therefore, how to retain loyal customers is always a top priority of every business. Among various ways, launching a Customer Loyalty App, which can encourage users to return and purchase products, is a worth-trying solution. To learn more about this Software Development, do not skip this blog!

1. What Is A Loyalty App?

A Loyalty App, which can track and record all users’ activities, is a modern version of the traditional loyalty card. Thanks to this Customer Loyalty Software, it can be easier for businesses to plan and optimize campaign reward programs at selling centers. Referral tracking is also made possible via a central dashboard to integrate and improve such programs. Moreover, an effective customer loyalty software brings about opportunities for businesses to manage several reward tools per customer at one go, including gifts, loyalty cards, and rewards. Being considered as a CRM or a customer engagement tool, Loyalty Software can offer multi-mode deployment, be it web-based, cloud-based, or an on-premise solution.

Another significant function of the Loyalty App is improving customer engagement. This is mainly because customers can easily leverage the loyalty program benefits by using their phones and simply scanning the QR code at checkout to update their loyalty status. Besides, this software development helps the customers to stay relieved of the hassle involved in looking out for the physical loyalty card when requested by the staff for payment.

2. Top 03 Key Features To Include In Customer Loyalty Software

If your businesses are pondering on building A Loyalty App, here are some features that should be taken into consideration:

a. Easy Registration

The sign-up form is one of the most important features of the app because it plays a critical role in keeping customers. A poor or complex one may make users jump through hoops, and to make matters worse, such users can delete the app immediately without thinking twice. Therefore, the Loyalty App should offer a smooth and easy sign-up process without any friction.

To facilitate registration, placing the social login options or emails on the sign-up page can be a good idea. After that, if you already have information from your CRM system, link it right away so that customers do not have to provide it again. If there is a new customer, prompt them to fill in their name, date of birth and phone number. Pay attention not to exploit too much to avoid creating uncomfortable feelings. Do reward new users with some points upon successful sign-up as well to gain a good impression.

b. Push notifications

Push notifications, which bring ROI (return on investment) as high as 3500%, are extremely important for almost all Mobile App Developments, and Customer Loyalty Software is not an exception. Such notifications act as a reminder prompting users to have access to your app to keep track of the latest promotions, coupons,… However, let’s keep in mind that overuse may be counter-effective because customers may consider it spam and turn off this feature or even remove the app. Adequate notifications can foster the touch between brands and their customers, hence bringing businesses maximum revenues. Starbucks, for instance, leverage location-based push notifications in their loyalty app to send targeted offers to the users. Its principle is based on a user’s location, their purchase history, and whenever they pass by a Starbucks store, they are sent a notification of an offer so they could claim it by visiting the nearby outlet.

To make it clear, this feature relies on API Integration. In case you wonder “What is API?”, here is the answer: API (Application Programming Interface) is a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. In a push notifications system, two used APIs are Notification API and Push API. The former allows displaying notifications to the user while the latter lets a service manager push messages from a server, even when the app is not being used by the user. Both APIs are built on top of the service worker API that acknowledges the push messages in the background and passes them on to the mobile app. With the right tools integrated into a system, the product owners can identify customer segments who possibly have not been engaged (not using the application enough or not utilizing their rewards). There are provisions to filter out the correct segments and the product owners can only send reminders or special offers to such users.

c. Reward-based and redemption system

The Loyalty App needs to mix a variety of rewards, such as Discount codes, Vouchers, Gifts or Convert to consumer money, depending on the choice of business. Rewards can also be in the form of badges. Based on the user’s purchases or activities over time, badges can be upgraded and would be linked with the user’s profile. In order to receive the aforementioned rewards, businesses can offer many forms for customers to accumulate points:

Ordering: The most common form, customers earn points based on order value.

Write reviews, review products: Commonly used on e-commerce platforms or review sites.

Other forms: Log in every day, Play games, Perform tasks (invite a friend to make an order,…)

Remember to integrate the checkout redemption as well because the rewarding points mean nothing to customers if they can’t easily apply at the checkout time. Whatever points users collected over time, allowing them to use those points at the payment time by automatically subtracting the rewarding value from their bill can bring a sense of happiness and enhance their whole experience. This would encourage the users to purchase and engage more so that they can collect various rewards to get discounts the next time, hence, increasing the returns for businesses.

3. How To Create A Loyalty App?

To process a Loyalty App Development, keep in mind 3 main steps. The first and foremost is  Developing and Testing an interactive Prototype. At this point, it is necessary to line up all possible user flows to draft wireframes – rudimentary screen visualizations. From these low-fidelity designs, you continue to have high-fidelity mockups representing the application’s screens as they will look in real life. Once the interactive prototype has been brought into shape, it’s time to translate the designed screens into code. Besides the mobile application, the software providers would code the back-end (database, server-side logic, etc.) and a web platform for your staff to manage the app and its content. It would be better if you choose an outsourcing team with Agile Methodology as any issues or bugs get caught very early on in the development process. Finally, launch this app to the public and keep an eye on its performance to modify if any.

It is not overstated to say that 2021 is the year for Financial Technology (Fintech). This year, many old trends have made a big comeback and become a new wave in the Fintech industry such as Buy Now Pay Later. According to Global Insight, global fintech investment saw a remarkable rebound in H1’21, increasing from $87 billion in H2’20 to $98 billion in H1’21. As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, especially strict lockdown restrictions, people tend to choose digital payment to avoid spreading viruses and use Fintech apps to manage their money. Hence, Fintech Mobile Applications are getting more attention than ever before. Currently, a huge number of businesses have the intention to jump into this potential segment by building their own Fintech Apps. Then, let’s find out the 5 must-have features for every Fintech Mobile Application

1. Biometric login in Fintech Mobile Application

Biometric authentication is not the new term as it is widely used in the healthcare and car industry. Especially, Apple, with FaceID and Touch ID features, has spread mobile biometric technology to users. Biometric identification refers to the security processes that verify an individual’s identity by using their unique biological characteristics such as retinas, irises, voices, facial features, and fingerprints. This technology also brings mobile app security to a whole new level. Previously, traditional authentication methods, such as password-based or knowledge-based identification, were universally applied for verifying identity. However, remembering several complex passwords and answers for different accounts seems to be difficult and the process of recovering passwords is time-consuming and complicated. In contrast, biometric technology offers a high level of security and convenience compared to traditional ones. The physical features of each individual such as eye shape, fingerprints, or voice, are unique since even twins have different fingerprint patterns. Therefore, biometric authentication, with anti-spoofing technology, is considered a better choice than traditional identification.

In the 2021 survey executed by VISA, it is found that 65% of the US consumers felt familiar with biometric technology, and the majority of Vietnam cardholders are interested in using biometric authentication such as fingerprints or facial recognition to complete transactions, rather than PINs or passwords. It means that nowadays, biometric technology has become familiar with a majority of mobile phone users and a must-have feature for every mobile app. Then, integrating a biometric login feature into Fintech Mobile Apps will enhance customer experience and retention.

2. Friction-free sign-up form

Poor or complex sign-up form design is one of the most popular mistakes when building mobile apps. The sign-up form is one of the first things a user has to deal with after they install the app. It plays a vital role in keeping customers as a complicated form that requires too much information will discourage users from completing the sign-up process.

Instead of making your app complicated with several requirements, the sign-up process should be simple, convenient, and integrated with different sign-up choices such as sign-up with social media or emails. As “simple is the best”, let’s simplify the form with a user-friendly UX design to make a better user experience.

At the first glance, we can easily see the main points that the mobile apps want users to provide in the sign-up form.

Clear labels

Outstanding “OK” button

Involve Passcode/ Touch ID/ QR Codes features

Categories are divided clearly

Easy-on-eye font and size of text

Harmonious theme color

Running smoothly

Since the VC Wallet app aims to create digital wallets that can receive and send Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), ValueCoin (FVC), Genesis (GOD), and other Ethereum-based ERC20 tokens, the sign-up process is simpler than other apps. However, it is still a good example of an easy-on-eyes sign-up form with convenient biometric and QR Code features.

3. Interactive Data Visualization

Data is definitely the main concern in Fintech and data analytic is the standard and must-have feature for every Fintech Mobile Apps. A successful Fintech App needs to organize an effective data storage system that is able to display a huge amount of data in a small space. Data display should be fit with users’ mobile screens so that they don’t have to scroll down many times. Normally, data in mobile apps is usually arranged and classified in the form of bar charts or pie charts with different colors for different categories.

We can take Money Lover- an app that helps users manage their expenses and plan budgets, as an ideal Fintech mobile app that has interactive data visualization. As can be seen from the picture, the expenses are divided into several categories, such as shopping, bills, travel, food & beverage, health&fitness, etc. If users wonder how much money they have spent on food or what categories they have spent the most, they can easily trace back in “Expenses by categories’. Every category has a symbol icon so that users can easily find their different expenses.

4. API Integration in Fintech Mobile Application

Application Programming Interface (API) is a connection (protocols and codes) between several applications. It is the means to share data between two or more apps. When using API, developers don’t need to code manually with each application since data is synchronized with other apps in the network.

Since Fintech is directly related to banks, therefore, integrating API into Fintech Mobile App is necessary. With API Fintech Mobile Apps, users can manage their finance from anywhere without interaction with banks. Additionally, when consumers use different apps, API brings a huge convenience when the financial data is synchronized among apps so that they don’t need to input data. It helps users to save time and effort in managing their financial situation. Currently, many industries leverage the power of API into mobile apps, such as:

Banking

Cryptocurrencies & Blockchain

Payment

Insurance

5. AI Chatbots

As people are now living in the booming technology world, mobile app users, who are tech-savvy, keep expecting more in an app such as instant messaging and personalized experience. And chatbots are considered a great solution to meet the customers’ demand. It now develops from a simple tool to a vital digital assistant for Fintech Mobile Apps.

At the basic level, a chatbot is a software program that processes human conversation, including written and spoken, allowing customers to interact with digital devices as they were talking with a real person. A high-level chatbot can work as a virtual assistant that learns and delivers increasing levels of personalization while executing multiple processes at the same time. The 2018 State of Chatbots Report found out that customers expect the following features provided by chatbots:

24-hour service — 64%;

Getting an instant response — 55%;

Answers to simple questions — 55%;

Easy communication — 51%;

Complaints resolved quickly — 43%.

Therefore, if you have an intention to integrate AI Chatbot Development Services into your apps, let’s take a deep look at what customers require from a chatbot. It can be seen from the survey that the majority of users expect 24-hour services, instant responses, and simple communication. It means that your businesses should take the speed and straightforward & simple answers of chatbots to priority.

6. Final thoughts

Nowadays, the world keeps changing with the rapid development of brand-new technologies and widespread digital transformation, and the Fintech industry is not an exception. Consequently, Fintech Mobile Application is predicted to be not a temporary trend but the future of Fintech.

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Sota Tek is a software development company established in 2015, based in Hanoi, Vietnam. We are a responsible, and capable professional team that builds full-stack solutions in multiple platforms with highly scalable back-ends and rich media front-ends.