More than one-third of respondents report card-linking growth rates up more than 100 percent
HERNDON, Va. (Dec. 19, 2022)—The Digital Commerce Alliance (DCA) released 2022 data revealing industry trends related to the card-linking, mobile wallet, and financial data space at the annual DCA Summit held earlier this month.
Among the global trade association’s findings in its seventh annual study? The use of card-linking is up. Thirty-seven percent of those who responded reported program growth of 100 percent or more; a quarter reported program growth of 50 percent to 100 percent.
Card-linked loyalty programs are used by 45 percent of survey respondents (up 11 percentage points since 2020). Card-linked offers are used by 52 percent (up seven percentage points since 2020).
“Card-linking continues to grow,” said Dan Currell, Chief Executive Officer of DCA. “The results of this survey show that marketing leaders increasingly count on card-linking to engage consumers and drive growth.”
Other key findings include:
- Restaurants are back in the top two merchant categories for card-linking in 2022, just behind e-commerce. Grocery had taken a second place in 2021 due to a shift towards eating at home during the height of the pandemic.
- Covid helped digital commerce long-term. More than 70 percent of respondents this year noted that the pandemic, despite the disruption, fear and uncertainty associated with it, drove the industry’s need to innovate and consumers’ need to adapt.
- The idea that data should be owned by consumers is gaining ground. Seventy percent of those who participated in this year’s study said it is “very important” that consumers own their own financial data. More than 78 percent agreed that a consumer’s permission should be required before sharing data.
- Industry priorities are evolving. As a sense of normalcy takes hold, there’s more room on respondents’ agendas to focus on ESG initiatives, including diversity in the workplace, financial literacy, social advocacy, and education.
The DCA research team polled digital commerce leaders from around the world, including the U.S. and Canada, Australia, the U.K., and Japan. Respondents ranged from start-up/small companies (up to 99 employees—29 percent), to mid-sized (100 to 999 employees—24 percent), to large (1,000 to 4,999 employees—8%), to enterprise organizations (5,000 + employees—40%).
Completing the survey were executives from banks/card issuers, payments companies, card-linking technology providers, CPG companies, retailers/merchants, loyalty companies, digital advertising platforms, mobile wallets, and mobile apps.
Members of DCA are from organizations as varied as Microsoft, Sam’s Club/Walmart, Bank of America, RBC, Google Pay, Mastercard, VantageScore, Cardlytics and Valuedynamx shared their experiences and perceptions.
Download: 2022 Digital Commerce Annual Industry Study
About the Digital Commerce Alliance (DCA)
The Digital Commerce Alliance (DCA) is a global trade association focused on driving the future of digital commerce by promoting collaboration, education, and technology standards in digital commerce, with a special emphasis on financial data, mobile wallets and card-linked offers and loyalty programs.
DCA members serve or represent more than 6 million merchants, have issued close to 2 billion payment cards, and meet the needs of consumers with 200 million+ card-enabled accounts and more than 700 million active daily users.