A new association designed to promote interoperable card-linked customer offers has been set up by industry players including Microsoft, Bank of America, Discover, Facebook and First Data.
The CardLinx Association says that customers currently find the process of sorting through and using the rash of shopping-related offers they are bombarded with cumbersome.
It aims to simplify the process by improving interoperability for card-linked offers, giving merchants and advertisers the ability to deliver a deal without having to use a paper coupon, voucher or promotion code on mobile devices.
Open to financial institutions, publishers, advertisers and merchants, merchant acquirers and payment networks, the association counts Linkable Networks LivingSocial, MasterCard, Affinity Solutions and Cardlytics among its founding members.
"We're focused on connecting digital advertising to the physical world in a way that minimises friction for merchants and consumers so they can engage with each other in valuable ways. We believe that card linked offers will play a key role in delivering on this promise," says Erik Jorgensen, GM, local advertising, Microsoft.
To do this, Microsoft has teamed up with fellow CardLinx member First Data, integrating its Bing Offers Card-Linked service with the latter's OfferWise, a platform that enables retailers to electronically attach offers to cards and mobile wallets for automatic redemption at the point of sale.