CHICAGO — Payments are increasingly becoming an integral source of data for retailers, and the modern loyalty program needs plenty of it (data) to achieve the level of personalization that today’s consumers expect.
Washington, D.C.-based GetUpside uses consumer credit-card purchasing data to inform ways to personalize loyalty programs to that person’s wants and needs. The data is anonymized to prevent misuse. Using that purchase data, GetUpside can identify whether an individual has shopped at a particular fuel retailer before. GetUpside’s platform then utilizes that data to deliver a fuel or in-store promotion or custom pricing specifically tailored to that customer.
Related: Loyalty, This Time It’s Personal
“Phillips 66 chose to work with GetUpside to reach new consumers and entice them to visit our branded sites using the discount app. These are consumers who may not have visited our sites before, so, by offering them personalized discounts through the app, we’re driving new traffic to our sites and growing volume at the fuel pump and inside the convenience store,” says John Barbour, manager of payments and card services for Phillips 66.
Using information gleaned from anonymized credit-card data, brands can protect against cannibalizing their own profits, says GetUpside co-founder and CEO Alex Kinnier. “Cannibalization is a person who is already going to purchase from you, but you are now earning less off of them because you discounted a product for them that you didn’t need to,” says Kinnier.
But how can retailers identify if there is cannibalization within their customer-facing offers? “Take the customers that were exposed to that action [and] compare those customers’ purchase behaviors post-exposure with two things: those customers pre-exposure and those customers vs. a group that wasn’t exposed to the action,” says Kinnier.
Boston-based GasBuddy has embraced the importance of mobile payments at c-stores as it has grown. Originally, GasBuddy was built to provide crowdsourced information on c-store and fuel locations and fuel prices. GasBuddy deepened its relationship with its customers when it released Pay with GasBuddy, said Sarah McCrary, CEO of GasBuddy.
“We now collect fuel price and gallons-pumped data from the Pay with GasBuddy card transactions to enrich our data,” says McCrary. The company also developed a platform for fuel retailers to manage their digital presence on GasBuddy’s app. Retailers can update information on their prices, locations, operating hours and more.
“As competition grows, the best brands are taking advantage of this consumer data and engaging with the consumers to show they care about each experience, which is a great signal to the others that this brand takes their customers seriously,” says McCrary.
Payments are not a retailer’s only source of data, however. Just about any interaction with a brand can help inform a company how to interact with that consumer, says Mike Hughes, CEO of Exchange Solutions.
“Incentivizing actions such as geo check-in, in-store QR code scanning, profile data completion, connecting health trackers, etc., all deliver valuable data that aid in personalizing marketing and capitalizing on real-time interactions,” says Hughes.
“Also, connecting loyalty earn-burn capability to mobile and other digital payment flows ensures a seamless loyalty experience during checkout.” Earn-burn refers to the cycle of loyalty members earning benefits and then spending those benefits.
More: Artificial Intelligence in the C-Store
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.