The Coventry Cloud - a Rewarding Shopping Experience

Coventry City Council's policy makers have economic growth at the very heart of the city's economic development strategy. Rightly seen as a driver of jobs and wellbeing, Coventry City Council is committed to creating the right conditions for investment. A revitalisation of the city centre is crucial to the success of the strategy as part of a broad based approach that includes a focus on development sites and technology sectors.
To this end, Coventry City Council and its public and private sector partners are now engaged in a number of enabling initiatives that will bring real commercial advantages to existing businesses and prospective investors. These include shared space, ultra-fast broadband and open access 4G wireless.

Our proposal is to carry out a feasibility study for an interactive shopping rewards programme. It is anticipated that “The Coventry Cloud” would raise the profile of the city centre, increase footfall, enhance the quality of life for residents and visitors, create additional retail spend and attract new high street investors. The innovative and technically advanced methodology would also allow the Council and its city centre retailers to collect and collate a range of data sets that will be used to further define and improve the offer.

“The Coventry Cloud” would be a unique and highly innovative rewards programme centred on the regeneration of the city’s retail offer and to combat Coventry’s steep decline in city centre footfall and spend. It is hoped that “The Coventry Cloud” would be designed to empower the retailer through the development of a new socially connected digital system, attracting three key market segments back into Coventry’s high street and provide a vibrant, simple retail and leisure economy that communicates more effectively with the consumer, entertains families of all ages and educates, stimulates and promotes a healthy high street offer. Incorporating both online and offline solutions, “The Coventry Cloud’s” primary goal would be to incentivise visitors and residents for visiting, spending and staying longer in Coventry city centre. The project seeks to establish if Coventry s unique independent retailer offer, incentives and rewards would attract customer loyalty. Working with the main local authority, Coventry City Council, the Coventry City Centre Business Improvement District and private sector partners Serious Games International, “The Coventry Cloud” would provide a social playground designed to enhance virtual experiences using intuitive logistical setup, ground breaking methods of consumer engagement and a simple, customer-friendly approach to accessing retailers and their merchandise 24/7.
We enclose a letter of support for the project from Andy Talbot, Director, West Orchards Shopping Centre and Chair of the Coventry Business Improvement District for the city centre. We also have further support letters from other retailers including Marks & Spencers, Debenhams and several from smaller independent retailers.