Financial Transaction Data Helps Merchants Target Consumers with Cash Gifts
Retailers want consumers to visit their stores. They especially want likely buyers to come in and browse. A “Gift Underwriting Engine” from FreeMonee, in partnership with credit and debit card issuers, helps merchants identify individuals who regularly make purchases in categories related to the merchants’ products. FreeMonee then develops campaigns to use small cash gifts to entice these potential buyers into stores.
Here are some things we love about the idea:
- Offers are extremely relevant, which consumers crave, and highly targeted, which satisfies merchants.
- The offers promise the consumer “no-strings attached.”
- Redemption of the offer is easy for both consumers and merchants (it’s built into the card-swipe).
- It gives retailers a hook to get customers (some of them new ones) in the door where they will likely spend more than the offer amount.
But what we love most:
- The offers come from the bank (to customers who have opted in) instead of a third-party. This protects consumers’ private financial information, lends a degree of credibility to each offer and gives financial institutions one more benefit to offer customers.
FreeMonee comes online at a time when banks and credit card issuers are challenging daily deals sites, giving them one more way to get a share of the market that’s in love with discounts and offers. And according to FreeMonee’s website, the campaigns work. The company reports a 500-900 percent return on ad spend and 5-8 times increase in merchant visits.
