Bilt’s Bet on Banyan Turns Neighborhood Spending Into Hyper-Targeted Rewards

Local economies are made up of neighborhoods, and neighborhoods are home to a collection of businesses, from chain stores to groceries to local merchants and the corner pharmacy.  Individuals may find their favorite go-to establishments for their daily needs — or in other cases, may drive right by a store, never knowing what’s on the shelves, even if they’ve lived there for years.

Foot traffic is a boon for those merchants, as customers walk in for what they need and might walk out with three or four other items they hadn’t intended to buy, but while in the aisles, they gave in to impulse shopping.  Large consumer packaged goods companies, of course, distribute their products through those local neighborhoods and spend an inordinate amount of time and money in the form of marketing dollars and promotions to get people to buy what they offer.

“What’s special about the neighborhood,” as Ankur Jain, CEO of Bilt Rewards, told Karen Webster, “is that you live nearby…and they know who you are.  eCommerce may be huge, but there’s something special about walking into the neighborhood store.  They know who you are and what you like.”

Jain and Jehan Luth, Founder & CEO of Banyan, told Webster that the new combination of their platforms announced earlier this month — commerce platform Bilt is buying item-level receipt data Banyan — will rewire neighborhood commerce.

In terms of the mechanics of the deal, Banyan’s item-level intelligence is being integrated into Bilt’s expanding commerce network of 40,000 merchants. That item-level data will enable personalized rewards and merchant promotions, as well as continue to power automated FSA/HSA savings.

A Natural Extension

Luth and Jain told Webster that the deal is a natural culmination of work they’ve already done together, tied to those FSA/HSA accounts and healthcare savings, where swiping a card at the local Walgreens tied into the intelligence and the automation of the two platforms to alert customers that certain items were eligible for savings and reimbursement.

Banyan’s Luth noted, with an eye on the 20 billion receipts crossing its platform: “We’ve obsessed over building the right rails and the right infrastructure — scalable and privacy-protecting — in ways that empower merchants and consumers, and power Bilt. It’s a natural fit.” Bilt, for its part, has been building its merchant networks around neighborhoods nationwide,  through distributors and resellers.

There’s particular untapped potential, the duo told Webster, with people who move into a new neighborhood — a migration of millions of people each year.  (Consumer Affairs, for instance, has estimated that more than 8% of the population moves annually.)

“Basically all of your shopping habits are up for grabs,” said Luth, who added that moving equates to a great “rewiring of where you go to buy gas, groceries” and where one finds their local pharmacy or goes to eat.

The cross-pollination of the two platforms (Bilt initially has its roots in turning housing payments into loyalty rewards, becoming the largest housing brand in the U.S.) will forge what they described as a powerful connection between merchants and consumers through tailored offerings. “Knowing when someone has moved in,” said Luth, “and being able to engage them with highly relevant offers…when merchants see value in measurable incremental revenue and end consumers see value, that’s when these ecosystems really start driving off each other.”

The merchants, in turn, are “embedded” into the Bilt ecosystem, interacting with consumers along their daily activities without having to push them to download an app. In one example, a consumer using the Bilt app to pay their rent may be alerted to a promotion at a local restaurant, click to access that reward, book through OpenTable and check in when they arrive at the establishment.

“We meet the customer where they are, and we help the merchant meet the customer where they are,” said Jain.  The merchants are able to measure, in dollars and cents, the incremental return on every promotional dollar that’s put to work.

“We’re supporting that neighborhood ecosystem,” Jain told Webster, “in ways where a local business now has access to the marketing capabilities, rewards capabilities and loyalty capabilities that otherwise would have been reserved only for the largest retailers in the country.”