Some businesses have customer loyalty programs and others don't. According to BIA's research, about 60 percent of small and medium businesses (SMBs) either have or plan to have a customer loyalty program. Here's the question: do customer loyalty programs actually…
What do you get when you mix Coca-Cola with Google? That's what Greg Chambers, Coca-Cola's global group director of digital innovation wondered. Chambers is keynoting BIA/Kelsey's LOCAL IMPACT Atlanta conference on October 12th. He will share insights of the journey…
Accenture released a report that declared loyalty points are dead for consumers and there are new factors at play influencing consumers' choices for loyalty. The Accenture Strategy report, ‘Seeing Beyond the Loyalty Illusion: It’s Time You Invest More Wisely’, captures…
Mobile coupon usage by consumers is on the rise and is proving to drive consumers to buy more and try new technologies, according to eMarketer. eMarketer reports that by the end of 2016 104 million adults in the U.S. will be…
Bank AmeriDeals was launched in 2012 with the most ambitious marketing effort in the card linked offer space. Since then, the promotions program has given BoA insight into spending for over 35 million accounts, and helped deepen customer and merchant…
Microsoft continues to push ahead with its card linked offer program, which has been in Beta in Washington, Arizona and Massachusetts since May. But since we last wrote about it in April, the program has been rebranded from Bing Offers…
LivingSocial – which has played Avis to Groupon’s Hertz in the prepaid space – has been in retrench mode under new CEO Gautam Thakar. Today, it announced a new Card Linked Offer (CLO) loyalty program for restaurants called Restaurants Plus.…
A slew of membership-based loyalty plays such as Belly, Five Stars, SpotOn, MOGL, Spring, Perka, Thanx and others launched around 2011 to focus more on customer loyalty than new customer acquisitions. The business model: charge SMBs monthly fees; recognize customers…
Groupon today announced it would join the online food delivery space, acquiring Baltimore-based OrderUp, which has O&O and affiliated delivery service in 40 markets. Most of the markets are college towns, which is a strongpoint for food delivery. As Crain’s…
Wanderful Media, the newspaper-owned promotions company, has expanded on its original Find&Save coupon portal, which now includes 500 national and regional merchants, and 18,000 brands. The new expansion efforts are focused on Cash Dash, a geolocation promotions feature found within…
FiveStars, the well-funded SMB loyalty company that competes against Belly, SpotOn and others, is projecting it will grow its merchant base to 8,000-9,000 businesses by year-end, up from its current base of 6,000 customers. Customers who subscribe to FiveStars premium…
Groupon is apparently thinking hard about dismantling its ambitious SMB platform, and refocusing on its core strengths in prepaid deals, goods and travel. Reports have come out saying that Groupon is offering to sell its Breadcrumb POS platform, which had…
BIA/Kelsey is out with my new paper on the status of card-linked offers, which is based on detailed discussions with 14 leaders of the card linking ecosystem, including credit card firms, tech vendors, payment processors, publishers and merchants. Most of…
Facebook isn't often thought of in terms of "commerce," a la retailers such as Amazon or financial institutions such as American Express, but it makes a strong case for itself as a company that "unlocks" commerce. Speaking at The CardLinx…
Facebook isn't often thought of in terms of "commerce," a la retailers such as Amazon or financial institutions such as American Express, but it makes a strong case for itself as a company that "unlocks" commerce. Speaking at The CardLinx…
Will card-linked offers supplement coupons and advertising for national and local merchants and services? Will financial institutions such as banks and credit card companies take advantage of their access to card data to become major players in ecommerce and media…
More than 15 years ago, telecom carriers seemed like the logical candidate to handle ecommerce and other third party billing. But high commissions as high as 30 percent ruled them out for handling most billing accounts, after a fast start…
Forty percent of merchants run some kind of “special” sales or promotions according to a Groupon survey of 25,000+ merchants. Half of the specials are offline, "trapped" on chalkboards and menus, noted Groupon VP of Marketplacest Dan Roarty, who was…
The Point of Sales revolution that began with Square’s introduction of its iPhone fob in 2009 has continued unabated. Rising consumer expectations, increased mobile and WiFi access and more tools have made POS a strategic tool that could not have…
First Data, the payment processing giant, has been building up a suite of services that would take the company far beyond payment processing and inject it squarely in the middle of SMB marketing. The suite as currently configured includes the…