DURANGO, Colo. -- Mercury StoreCard now enables local merchants to offer their customers a gift, reward, mobile payments and promotions card all in one product. Mercury Payment Systems, a provider of payment technology and services, is making Mercury StoreCard widely available to all Mercury merchants.
Mercury StoreCard enables small businesses to compete with larger retailers by providing a stored-value card using affordable technology, it said.
The Mercury StoreCard lets merchants brand their own reloadable card for accepting customer payments. The cardholder can use a quick-response (QR) barcode on the back of the card to access their prepaid card account on their smartphone. Customers can also convert their physical StoreCard into digital cards so they can pay for purchases using their smartphones. Merchants also have the option to offer cash-back rewards or other features to drive repeat customers.
Similar programs launched by large retailers over the last few years have seen widespread market adoption, but such programs were cost prohibitive for smaller merchants, the company said.
Joe Lloyd, owner of Durango Joe's Coffee, said Mercury StoreCard provides him with the same technology tools that its large competitors have, but without the added burden of expensive hardware and software add-ons. Mercury StoreCard operates on the software already integrated into Durango Joe's point-of-sale (POS) systems.
"The StoreCard technology complements what we are already doing, which is creating a great customer experience," said Lloyd. "The process is easy, not complicated. A great feature of StoreCard is the reload feature. It automatically reloads money on your card when you get down to a certain denomination so customers feel inclined to come back. Customers can also get a percentage back in cash."
Since the card is reloadable, Mercury intends it to be a gift card as well as a payment product for the local merchant. "Our hope is the cards will be given out as gifts and recipients will start using them as their primary payment card at merchants' stores," said Travis Priest, vice president of value-added services for Mercury. "Users can track both current balances and rewards totals on their phone and don't have to worry about keeping track of loyalty and gift cards for their favorite local stores."
"We chose to work with Mercury because their technology could integrate seamlessly with our point-of-sale system," said Ariane Speck, owner of Da Kind Soups, another user of Mercury StoreCard. "Using mobile technology in real-time with our brand is important for customer retention and to set us apart from competitors."
Durango, Colo.-based Mercury Payment Systems, a Vantiv company, partners with software companies and technology services firms to embed payment processing in front- and back-office applications. Mercury's commerce technology is integrated into a broad set of POS systems, reaching merchants through a partner network of more than 3,000 POS software developers and value-added resellers.
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