Ice Rewards

 

 

 

Last week, my children and I were invited to Tulleys Farm in Crawley, to spend the afternoon with some lovely people from Ice Rewards.  We took my sister, Amy, and enjoyed a tea party with lots of yummy chocolate eggs (much to Sonny's delight!).

 

                                      

We were also given the opportunity to find out all about this brilliant new reward scheme, My Ice, that none of us had discovered before.

 

We chatted for over an hour but it is these few short statements from a press release that really say it all, in my eyes:

Entrepreneur and CEO of Ice Jude Thorne (former AirMiles CEO) feels passionate about supporting climate change in the UK. In 2011, she set up Ice a new and unique loyalty scheme, which rewards customers for spending on environmentally-friendly goods and services: http://www.myice.com/

Since launching, Ice has built up an impressive range of partners. These include Eurostar, LoveLula, SSE, Stagecoach Bus, and MyTrainTicket. Ice customers can also shop with John Lewis and M&S online.

As well as this impressive partner network of large, house-hold brands, Ice has a really strong partnership network with local small businesses and farm shops, offering customers the opportunity to support local economies (and earn and spend loyalty points) across the UK.

I am all for simplicity - ease of both use and understanding.

Essentially, by using Ice, you can help support small local businesses and farm shops whilst reaping personal benefits in the form of Ice points.  And, on top of that, you get a clean, green conscience.

What could be better?

 

To find out just how simple it really is to redeem your accumulated Ice points, we were given an Ice

reward card pre-loaded with £20 worth of points.

I decided to spend some in the farm shop at Tulleys, to test its ease of use within a physical environment, and to spend the remainder online.

Use of the reward card in store really could not have been easier. 

I simply filled up a basket, headed to the checkout and handed over my card, stating that I wanted to use my Ice points to pay for the goods.

The card was then inserted into a card reader, the relevant points were deducted, and we were free to go, shopping in hand.

It is always so nice when a plan comes together!

 

Additionally, to shop online using Ice - a great way of both earning and spending points - is quite simple too.

I decided to spend my remaining Ice points at M&S online.  I signed into my Ice account, clicked the relevant links and found myself facing this:

 

 

 

Basically, in order to shop online at M&S using Ice points, it is necessary to first purchase a gift card, which you then use against any purchases made online.  Happily, the leg work is done for you and everything is explained, as you can seen from the above screenshot.

I am something of a technophobe but even I managed to checkout without any problems or incurred costs.

N.B. Ice points are currently not redeemable instore at M&S but it is possible to negate the need for delivery charges by choosing to collect your online shopping at your local branch.  I shall be collecting my order on Tuesday!

 

I can honestly say that I will be using my Ice card whenever possible - here's to bigger and better things for the Ice team, for local economies and for the environment.

 

 

Disclosure: we were provided with £20 of Ice points to spend as we wished.  All opinions are our own.