Manchester City Football Club is boosting its retail sales using customer relationship
management software (CRM) built on smartcard technology.

In the summer of 2003, the club was one of the first to install a radio frequency identity (RFID) smartcard ticketing system, to provide more detailed information about supporters and their purchasing habits.

Previously, the club was unable to track what merchandise its supporters were buying unless goods were bought in conjunction with a ticket.

‘Now we can look at what we’ve sold across our retail, internet and mail-order channels, as well as ticketing purchase data,’ said Duncan Martin, head of retail at Manchester City FC.

CRM software called Profile Manager, from specialist provider Software4Sport, pulls together data from the smartcard system and matches it with details about what those supporters have bought online, in shops or via the club’s mail-order catalogue.

The software is already creating sales opportunities.

‘We used Profile Manager to identify our top 2,000 customers,’ said Martin.

‘We invited them to a preview evening when we launched the new kit in May, and sold £15,000 of merchandise in one night.’