Page 45 - Pay Magazine s2014

volume 9 • spring 2016
Even back in 1997 this virtual card solution helped solve a few key problems for institutional clients, including:
• Making an electronic pay- ment without the bene ciary’s bank information
• Having an incentive that’s appealing to consumers while trying to direct some of that spend back to our client’s products and services
• Reducing the payment de- livery time and costs by eliminating the need to mail a check or card
Until recently, virtual prepaid card solutions have been used mostly for online marketing promotions— for example, as an incentive for com- pleting online surveys or signing up for paperless billing. When the desired action is an online activity, it made sense for the reward to be paid online as well. On the ip side, for traditional rebate programs driven by retail sales, it made sense to replace the traditional rebate check with physical rebate cards that would drive consumers back into retail stores to spend their rebates. Combined with the fact that in the early 2000s—just as corporations began adopting prepaid as an alternative to rebate checks—online consumer spend was still low (but growing quickly), it made sense that physical prepaid cards took o and have dominated the consumer incentives landscape ever since.
In 2016, virtual card solutions
for consumer incentive promotions still deliver the same fundamental bene ts to institutional buyers, but now can do so in a much more compelling way because of several key factors:
• The prevalence of smart- phones means most bene- ciaries receive their initial email or text noti cation right away and can access their virtual accounts wherever they are without having to be in front of a desktop computer
• Online shopping is much more ubiquitous now, and consumers are more comfort- able using their rewards to shop online versus in-store
• For those that do want to shop in-store, the availability of host card emulation sol- utions or integration with mobile wallets promises
to enable bene ciaries to transact o ine at a grow- ing number of merchants without the need for a physical card
• Geolocation services and
big data, combined with an intuitively designed user interface such as a native app or responsive design mobile Website, enable clients to be very targeted in presenting cardholders with relevant and compelling o ers that drive spend back to their own pro- ducts or channel partners
As institutional clients look to bene t from these developments, they should be aware of the fact that mobile wallet solutions are still device-speci c and have a more limited acceptance footprint compared with a physical network branded prepaid card. While these numbers are improving every day, issuers and institutional buyers should consider o ering integrated payment alternatives (such as an optional physical card) to ensure that 100 percent of a client’s customer base can access their rewards wherever they are. De- livering a great user experience
is essential.
Virtual cards may have been
a reality for the last 20 years,
but recent developments suggest that virtual cards are becoming
not only a viable alternative to physical cards but a service that can deliver additional client value in terms of speed, data, cost and consumer appeal for B2C corporate incentives in 2016 and beyond.
Brad Gar eld is the global product head for Citi’s corporate and public sector Prepaid Cards business.
Brad was an early member of the product management team at Ecount,
a pioneering prepaid card and electronic payments company that was acquired by Citi in 2007. Brad has held se-
nior product roles in the U.S., EMEA and LATAM, and has led the in- novation around many of the new payment ows that have fueled
Citi Prepaid’s tremendous growth since the acquisition. He may be reached at brad.gar eld@citi.com.
paybefore.com 43