“Receipt level data is the Holy Grail of data.”
Wil Schobeiri, chief technology officer at Banyan, told PYMNTS that stock keeping unit (SKU)-level information — digested by merchants and banks and disseminated to consumers on their statements and banking apps — acts as the glue that brings merchants, banks and customers together.
Loyalty is critical this holiday season and in the coming months and years ahead, as inflation is a stubborn mainstay of everyday life. Merchants need to find ways to stay relevant to their consumers. Banks and issuers want to retain as much spending on their cards as possible, and traditional marketing pitches, through email and one-size-fits-all discounts, aren’t doing the job.
In a perfect world, said Schobeiri, “for a bank to understand, on a historical basis, the sorts of things that a consumer purchases and to provide targeted relevant offers … that’s a great opportunity.”
For the merchants and banks, too, there’s the added benefit of improving the returns on their marketing efforts. Granular insights into consumer behavior lead to loyalty, trust and longer customer lifetime values.
More Information, More Loyalty
On the consumer side of the equation, more information on the receipt — what was bought, where and when — rather than just a merchant name and transaction amount can do wonders in clearing up post-transaction confusion.
Flowing through it all is data. Banyan’s infrastructure model — partnering with merchants with item-level receipt data and securely sharing it with banks and financial institutions (FIs) — is one where “we don’t screen scrape,” said Schobeiri, meaning Banyan does not collect this data without permission from merchants or consumers. He added that “we bring merchants in, and we give them full transparency and self-control over who has access to their data.”
That’s a good example of how both sides of the network can provide significant value to one another through collaboration and, ultimately, a better consumer experience. In the meantime, “the banks and the FinTechs,” he said, “get their cards to be top of wallet.”
Banyan’s platform data-rich approach recently received additional validation — $43 million worth through a Series A funding round.
The company will leverage the funding to underpin use cases, including corporate spending management — pushing item-level detail from merchants into expense management solutions as road warriors hit the pavement and spend money on hotels and meals.
For business travelers, “there are no forms to fill out, and no photos of receipts to send,” he said, and that cuts down on time to reimbursement and gives better insight to corporate finance teams as well.
Separately, Banyan will enable card-linked offers that are powered by item-level receipt data.
“Working with offer platforms will expand the availability of those offers, which can target high-margin aisles within a store, or specific brands,” said Schobeiri.
The company has noted that targeted offering incentives can be matched to the item, category or aisle-level they want to reward — informed by consumer histories — all while driving card spending.
“This is a sub-scale marketing channel that we’re excited about,” he told PYMNTS. And with Banyan’s coffers newly flush, “it’s one that the market has borne out by investing in it.”