Award win and Retail Congress MENA panel appearance put RaffleTech’s gratifying rewards-based retention approach in the spotlight 

 

Dubai, UAE, 7th October 2026: RaffleTech, the Dubai-built retail engagement and retention technology company, has won Silver in the Service Excellence Award – Customer Engagement & Loyalty Platforms category at the MECSR Shopping Centre & Retailer MENA Awards 2026, organised by the Middle East Council of Shopping Centres & Retailers (MECSR).

The award was presented on 6 October 2026 at The Ritz-Carlton DIFC, Dubai, during Retail Congress MENA 2026. It recognised the entry “Raffletech & RaffleKlub: From Campaign Engagement to Customer Loyalty”.

Baiju Kurieash Pappachan, Founder & Managing Director of BUZ and RaffleTech, joined the congress panel “AI in Retail: Leveling Up the Operation”. He was joined by David Macadam, CEO of MECSR; Nevzat Yavan, Chief Operating Officer of Esas Properties; and Hamdi Kulahcioglu, Founder and CEO of LC Moda. The session explored how AI can strengthen everyday retail operations, and Baiju shared how RaffleTech applies practical, human-accountable AI to campaign participation and customer retention.

On the panel, Baiju explained how RaffleTech was created to solve the practical challenges of mega promotions involving multiple malls and thousands of retailers. “We took advantage of the COVID era and set up RaffleTech to digitally uplift what were otherwise physical promotions,” he said. “There were three or four areas we felt digital and tech could solve. One was avoiding the friction in customer participation. Another was how to get customers to participate with a singular rule that runs across thousands of retailers, who have different formats for validating it, and make sure it is administered well.”

The recognition highlights the company’s central proposition: a retail promotion should do more than generate entries or create a moment of excitement. It should help businesses build an ongoing relationship with participating customers, giving them relevant reasons to return long after the campaign ends.

“Bringing a customer into a store is only the first step. What really matters is giving that person a worthwhile reason to come back,” said Baiju Kurieash Pappachan. “This recognition reflects the thinking behind our gratifying rewards-based retention approach. We turn the excitement of taking part into a longer-term relationship, while giving retailers a clear view of what their campaigns are actually achieving.”

From campaign participation to continuing engagement

RaffleTech provides the business-facing technology for digital participation, purchase verification, campaign management and reporting. RaffleKlub extends the experience to consumers, bringing together participating offers, privileges, experiences and promotional opportunities. The aim is to connect the immediate appeal of a campaign with continuing discovery and engagement, rather than letting the relationship end at the prize draw.

The approach complements existing loyalty programmes by adding reward-led experiences beyond points and membership tiers. It is designed to make participation simpler and more relevant for digital-first shoppers, while giving businesses a practical way to encourage repeat visits and evaluate customer response.

In practice, gratifying rewards-based retention follows a structured and measurable cycle. With the customer’s consent, each qualifying purchase builds a clearer picture of what that shopper values, from the categories they buy into the offers and experiences they respond to. RaffleKlub then uses those interests to put relevant offers, privileges and future campaigns in front of the right customers, rather than sending the same message to everyone. Each follow-up is tracked against whether customers actually return, so retailers can see which rewards bring people back and refine their programmes based on evidence rather than assumption.

Built from the realities of retail

RaffleTech was born out of BUZ’s retail activation work during the pandemic era, when retailers and shoppers needed a contactless alternative to paper coupons, shared touchpoints and manual processes. That practical starting point still shapes how the platform develops today: solve a real retail problem first, then apply technology where it genuinely improves the experience.

Established in 2008, BUZ has spent nearly two decades delivering campaign strategy, communications and on-ground activation in Dubai, including work on the city’s seasonal shopping promotions. That hands-on campaign knowledge feeds directly into RaffleTech’s development. BUZ leads campaign ideation, strategy and execution, while RaffleTech provides the technology behind retailer participation and digital campaign operations.

The model is designed to scale from an individual store to a retail network, shopping destination or citywide promotion. For community malls and independent retailers, the objective is to make sophisticated engagement tools accessible without requiring every business to build its own technology operation.

Practical AI, with human accountability

RaffleTech’s AI-assisted workflows extract supported receipt details, while campaign rules determine eligibility and unclear submissions are referred for human review. The focus is on reducing repetitive work and making participation easier to manage, while keeping people responsible for campaign rules, exception handling and important decisions.

RaffleTech took its campaigns digital in 2020 and began applying AI in 2023, first to take away administrative work, analyse problems and report back. Receipts were one of the clearest examples. “Different retailers have different types of receipts, and reading receipts was a problem for the technology that we had in 2020,” Baiju said on the panel. “In 2023, when we employed AI, we could solve those problems much faster and at scale.”

The platform has since moved to agentic systems, with each agent given a defined job. One agent reads the receipts. Escalated cases are passed to another set of agents, and anything that cannot be resolved within the parameters of the campaign goes to human judgement. “There is always a human-centric approach,” Baiju said.

“An agent should have a defined job and limits, not unlimited authority because it is intelligent,” said Arun Sadasivan, Business Head of RaffleTech. “We are not asking retailers to become AI companies. We are helping them use AI to run better retail businesses, with people accountable for the decisions that matter.”

For RaffleTech, the regional opportunity lies in adapting the lessons of Dubai’s coordinated retail campaigns to different markets, commercial objectives and operating requirements, while keeping the customer journey straightforward. “It’s very important, in AI or in tech in general, to define the problem and then find out how that problem is being solved,” added Baiju Kurieash Pappachan.

Retailers, mall operators, brands and destination teams can engage with RaffleTech and BUZ to explore a focused pilot, beginning with a defined commercial objective and an agreed measurement plan.

ENDS