Check Out the Billion-Dollar Business That’s Getting Rid of Coupon-Clipping
TheStreet.com recently captured the essence of card-linking with the headline: Just Like Magic: Card-Linking Takes the Work Out of Store Rewards Programs. CardLinx CEO Silvio Tavares was extensively quoted in the article.
The reporter Valerie Young noted:
Using a process known as card-linking, the invisible infrastructure of the web can connect debit and credit cards seamlessly with merchants’ rewards, points and loyalty programs. The technology is expanding even faster than e-commerce, with card-linking marketing potentially taking as much as $50 billion in annual spending in the near future, according to the CardLinx Association’s 2016 industry survey. Global advertising spending reached an estimated $330 billion last year.
Card-linking, buoyed by network data shared from payment processors such as Visa (V) and MasterCard (MA) , is particularly beneficial to bricks-and-mortar retailers challenged by the rise of online stores like Amazon (AMZN) , since it provides them with data to connect with customers more effectively.
Card-linking underpins the Internet of Things, turning them into the Internet of Commerce Things (IoCT). What the article highlights is how the connections among social media, big data, payments, digital advertising, coupons and loyalty programs enables card-linking to work “like magic” for consumers. Not only is card-linking beneficial to consumers who opt into the coupon or loyalty benefit with the brands they love, but card-linking also helps CMOs complete the marketing campaign loop by directly connecting mobile, social or traditional advertising campaigns with a purchase at the point-of-sale. With card-linking, marketing departments transform from cost centers to profit centers for retailers and brands.
To learn more about how leaders are turbocharging their advertising campaigns with card-linking, come to the next CardLinx forum on Mobile Commerce and the Internet of Commerce Things on April 26th in San Francisco!