Digital Acceleration of the Cominar Privilège Program
How Cominar transformed its exclusive rebate program into a turnkey loyalty and communication solution.
Founded in 1965, Cominar is one of the largest real estate owners and managers in Québec. Guided by its values and expertise, its mission is to create modern, distinctive living environments within a portfolio of office, retail, and mixed-use properties. With high-potential densification assets strategically located near major transportation hubs, Cominar’s ambition is to build future-ready communities that will transform the urban landscape and positively contribute to the development of the neighborhoods where it operates. Its signature value — proximity — guides its daily actions and enables Cominar to make its properties everyday destinations that are both enticing and welcoming.
The Context
Several years ago, Cominar’s Marketing team asked itself: “What if the best ambassadors for our shopping centers were the very people who work there every day?”
This idea led to the creation of the Privilège program, a collection of benefits designed for employees of the various stores, restaurants, and services located within its centers.
For years, the program took shape in the form of a plastic card, distributed annually to every employee. The card granted access to exclusive privileges, notably discounts between retailers. Over time, the limits of the physical format became increasingly apparent: printing, distribution, manual registration management, difficult tracking… Each step was a logistical challenge. Around the same time, the Cominar team had a pressing need to modernize its communication techniques in order to reach employees directly and share information quickly.
To address these challenges, the idea of a mobile app emerged, and Cominar began the digital transformation of its program with a software partner. For various reasons, the provider was unable to complete the project, and Cominar turned to Spiria to finalize the development and launch of the application. Initially, it was used for a single shopping center: Centropolis, a large shopping and entertainment center located in Laval, which welcomes more than 9 million visitors per year. While the app still required major improvements, the Centropolis project acted as a highly effective proof of concept.
The Solution
Before rolling out Cominar Privilège in all of the company's shopping centers, the teams in place did a tremendous job of quality assurance and improving the software architecture. Initially, it simply did not have the robustness necessary to achieve the company's ambitions.
Objectives
The application works to support the company's business, communication, and marketing goals. It helps create true ambassadors for each shopping center. It provides the team with the tools they need to improve customer loyalty, strengthen ties with the community, promote retailers' offers and events, and thus increase the retention of retailers and their teams.
Solution Structure
The solution is based on two connected platforms: a web application and a mobile application. Together, they enable Cominar to manage and deploy its exclusive member benefits program.
The web application
The web application brings together a set of features that enable Cominar's Marketing team to manage the entire program, send communications to members and track memberships in one central location. Key features include:
- A merchant and employee management module, easily updated by merchants themselves through a personalized link, without the need to create or manage individual accounts.
- A simplified interface for managing offers, promotions, and privileges, allowing for quick, autonomous creation, modification, or archiving of offers.
- A targeted communication tool, enabling the creation of personalized messages and their distribution across relevant Cominar centers.
L’application mobile
Meanwhile, the mobile app allows members to enjoy their annual privileges, exclusive benefits, limited-time promotions and to access important news from the Cominar shopping centre of their choice. Key features include:
- A virtual bulletin board showcasing news and announcements from Cominar centers.
- A full catalogue of all offers and exclusive benefits.
- A unique digital membership card for each user that is easy to scan by the barcode reader of participating partners.
The Results
Today, Cominar Privilège helps foster customer loyalty, strengthen community relations, showcase retailers’ promotions and events, increase merchant and employee retention, and ultimately, create real ambassadors.
After several years of use, the program has grown to more than 2,000 users. The solution has evolved with agility over time, notably by adapting to a fundamental change at Cominar: the company, formerly an owner and manager of office, industrial, and commercial buildings, now shapes true living environments, where residential spaces, stores, services, and gathering spaces coexist. The program was naturally rolled out to the residents of these new hybrid communities, without any disruption to the experience. The tool has become a living link between Cominar and the people who live, work, or visit these spaces.
This operational and human success has enabled the solution to grow well beyond its original marketing purpose. Today, Cominar Privilège serves as a strategic lever on multiple levels:
- Strengthening the sense of belonging by creating natural ambassadors for its spaces.
- Simplifying internal management through a centralized, flexible web platform.
- Offering merchants new visibility with a direct, personalized showcase to a captive audience.
- Improving retention among employees and residents.
- Creating a direct connection with the community to facilitate communication.
The program has become a cornerstone of the Cominar experience: a tangible reflection of its commitment to building connected, sustainable communities that take pride in their living environments.
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