Banks can do for Daily Deals what Amazon did for e-Commerce

After working with many banks to introduce daily-deals based on transaction data, I've realized that this is like "preaching to the converted". Most banks recognize the potential of such a service to deliver an additional revenue stream as well as improve customer retention. If they still don't go ahead with it, I've learned that it's because of the challenges involved in building a big enough deal inventory. Although they're still loss-making, VC-fueled daily deal operators like GroupOn can afford to continue to grow their salesforce - which reportedly stood at 3,000 people at last count over a year ago - to work with merchants to sign up deals. Banks can't or won't do so. Secondly, merchants don't seem to like personalized deals. Counterintuitive as this might sound, there's a strong reason for this: Suppose a bank analyzes transactional data and learns that a certain John Doe spends a lot of money on pizzas every month. The bank will surely generate additional revenue and improve customer retention by targeting John Doe with a daily deal for, say, 40% off on, say, Marios Pizza assuming Marios Pizza is located near John Doe's home / office (since pizza delivery is a fairly local business). Problem is, Mr. Mario believes that John Doe anyway buys pizzas at full price from Marios Pizza, so finds it pointless - even loss-making - to offer 40% off to John Doe. Therefore, merchants are not too enthusiastic about signing up a daily deal for targeted audience. 

Now, it could be argued that Marios Pizza would be happy to sign up a daily deal if the targeted audience includes people like, say, Jane Doe, who spend a lot of money on eating out in general but nothing on pizzas at all. But, if the bank makes an offer for Marios Pizza to Jane Doe, it could be argued that the offer is irrelevant, which defeats the basic purpose of banks entering this business based on their access to transactional data.

There is also the "deal fatigue" factor to keep in mind. Consumers are showered with offers, 99% of which are irrelevant.

There's a bit of a conundrum here: As @AlexanderP rightly points out, consumers are wary of irrelevant offers. However, as I pointed out in my previous comment, many categories of merchants are wary of relevant offers.

Ketharaman is right: merchants need to be educated/sold. Joe buying pizzas from you does not mean he will continue doing so. Things to consider: loyalty, cross- and up-sell etc.

I.e. from my perspective, simply offering "pizza buyer" to a competitor is dumb and will not lead to a sustainable relationship.