What Card-Linked Offers Have Been Missing

Eric Dean, head of platform partnerships at Banyan, told PYMNTS that flexibility must govern marketing programs as merchants and financial institutions (FIs) seek to streamline and improve customer engagement.

These programs must always evolve, Dean noted, “as the overall economy around us is always changing too.” Program managers and senior executives must find ways to be nimble and, ideally, extend and deepen customer lifetime value.

Flexibility, he told PYMNTS, might indeed be the top of the list — the one thing, so to speak — that can help firms shift as needed to serve customers where they want to be met, and when.

And precision, in tandem with that flexibility, “can enhance these programs and drive the performance that you want.”

The Benefits of Receipt-Level Data

The conversation came during the first salvo of the “The One Thing” series, launched by PYMNTS. After all, there’s always “one” thing that might be pointed to as a key consideration for innovators and C-suite executives as they come to providers like Banyan to help them get to the next stage of what’s next in payments.

Joint PYMNTS/Banyan research has found that 72% of companies believe that consumers are likely to switch to competitors that provide receipt-level data granularity. As many as 80% of companies see the importance of incorporating that data into their organizations through the next three years.

He added that receipt-level data helps Banyan’s FI clients improve the flexibility and precision of merchants’ card-linked offers so that the latter can target consumers by spending vertical or even specific products.

See also: Brands Tap New Data Sources to Target Second-Time Buyers

Customized, contextual card-linked offers, he said, can improve the returns on investment and profitability within and across all channels of commerce — online and offline.

Co-branded credit cards, with embedded benefits and offers extended to customers when they might be most effective, can pay dividends. A personalized offer, informed by a wealth of transaction history — which changes as consumers’ tastes change — drives improvement in all manner of traditional metrics, from cost per customer acquisition to perception of a brand’s relevancy.

Relevancy is a critical consideration as brands jockey for a share of consumer attention and, ultimately, a share of spend. FIs want to be top of mind and have their cards exist at the top of the wallet when it comes time for the consumer to move from mulling a purchase to pulling the trigger and closing the sale.

Moving through the past several years and especially through the pandemic and post-pandemic commerce environments, consumers have more options than ever when it comes to shopping and to payments. As a result, FIs have had to become more precise and able to pivot, with their products, as embedded finance and virtual cards and other offerings have been more widely embraced, he said.

On the retailer side of the equation, he said, with a nod to his own past stints with merchants, Dean contended, “They will always be looking at, and always should be looking at, continuous improvement … ultimately, it’s the power of data, and receipt-level data,” that can foster continuous improvement as merchants and FIs compete more effectively in their chosen markets and business lines.

Looking ahead, he said, the potential for providers (Banyan among them) is to provide the item-level infrastructure to spur “the evolution and the modernization of card-linked offers. … We’re excited to drive towards the ‘2.0’ version of these offers, which will unlock customization and relevancy.”

As he told PYMNTS, “I’ve seen it on both sides — from the retailer standpoint and from the financial institution side. … This is an exciting time to see the evolution of how customers shop at these merchants and how financial solutions market themselves to these customers.”