The Christmas holidays comprise a peak season for retailers in North America and correspondingly see a spike in transactions for card issuers. In particular, shopping events during this time such as Black Friday and Cyber Monday have been very successful in achieving greater consumer traffic and sales.
Here is how Mindtree helped a global card issuer and leader in payments extend a Christmas shopping event to small merchants through an innovative mobile application.
The challenge
The customer had conceptualized a shopping event during the holiday season to encourage shoppers to recognize the contribution of small businesses to the economy by transacting at these establishments.
The card issuer decided to extend this initiative into the mobile arena through an iPhone application that would allow consumers to see all small businesses near their location. Other desired features included the ability to view businesses based on distance from the user's current location and display social media information. Further, consumers would be able to directly contact chosen small businesses by phone and view driving directions.
The customer was therefore looking for a technology partner with expertise in mobile application development that could develop the iPhone application without compromising on performance standards within a challenging four-month timeline.
Our solution
Mindtree collaborated with the customer to create an approach and execution plan to implement the iPhone application encompassing the following activities:
- System analysis and requirements documentation
- Detailed design, security interaction and solution architecture design and documentation
- Application framework design and data management interface
- Functionality implementation relating to iOS integrated maps (both Google as well Apple)
- Social media interface layer development to allow access to social media-related functionality using single point of interaction
- Miscellaneous feature implementation including sliding menu for application settings, direct voice calls and offline availability of information for easy reference
- Automated test case creation and implementation alongside unit tests for high quality, zero defects, optimum performance and stability
Business impact
- Supported a 21% year-on-year increase in transactions at 350 small merchants
- Helped drive engagement by delivering small business information to consumers
- Enabled consumer engagement on Facebook, Twitter and other social media
