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have begun to ripen. And those new capabilities are providing an opportunity for prepaid to reach more consumers and target specific audiences, notes Andrea Bianchi, head of international sales for TAS Group, which provides issuance and management software solu- tions for approximately 75 percent of all Italian prepaid cards, includ- ing Postepay.
“Prepaid issuers are taking care to design products for specific
payment uses because consumers want a customized payment exper- ience,” notes Bianchi. “Issuers can tailor the type of prepaid product to the target customer.” For in- stance, an issuer targeting sports fans could issue a prepaid card branded by an Italian football team with functions that appeal to fans, such as discounts on team-related apparel and tickets, he says.
Among specific uses, online shop- ping has been a key driver of
prepaid demand in Italy, where traditional debit cards often can’t be used to make online purchases. Epipoli offers a virtual prepaid MasterCard for online shopping and acts as a distributor for Ukash, which has offered online shopping vouchers since 2013 through Epipoli’s gifting network. Other prepaid providers have set their sights on the e-commerce seg- ment, too. In 2013, UBI Banca tar- geted online shoppers and digital natives with its LIKE prepaid card,
volume 8 • spring 2015
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