Banks May Use Retail Beacons To Benefit Own Apps

Are banks ready to hone in on mobile offers delivered via beacons? Beacon network Mobiquity is hoping that’s the case, Mobile Commerce Daily reported.

Last week, Mobiquity announced a deal with app provider Relevant Solutions that would add location-based offers, coupons and targeted advertising to bank and credit-union apps. The idea is that when a bank’s customer is in one of the 200-plus shopping malls that have Mobiquity’s beacon networks, the beacons will send offers to the bank’s app, which will then prompt the customer to pay using that bank’s credit or debit card.

The financial institution would then collect a fee from the merchant or brand sending the offer as well as interchange on the transaction.

The Mobiquity-Relevant partnership “has the potential to provide more than 2,500 financial institutions an opportunity to bring branded, local offers to their mobile app users,” the companies said in a press release. However, no specific banks or credit unions were named as participating in the program.

That doesn’t mean the opportunity isn’t there. “Credit card marketers like Visa, MasterCard and American Express and issuing banks like Citibank, Chase, Wells Fargo and others regularly use valuable merchant offers to encourage credit card usage and loyalty,” Mobiquity Chief Marketing Officer Jim Meckley told Mobile Commerce Daily. “Leveraging Mobiquity Networks’ platform to deliver those offers as the consumer is entering the shopping mall adds location context in real time to make the offers highly relevant and gives Relevant Solutions’ clients a distinct advantage.”

Bank and credit union customers would only get the home-screen notifications if they elect to receive them, and along with merchant and brand-based offers the new app feature would also drive use of the financial institutions’ apps for checking account balances or making payments.

Financial institutions have been looking for ways to use beacons effectively, both in and outside of institution branches. In December, U.K.-based Barclays launched a trial program at one of its branches to test beacons as a way to identify when customers with disabilities enter the branch so bank staffers could give them special assistance.

That could open the door for a wider range of bank customers using beacon-enabled apps to announce themselves when they enter bank branches, giving staffers the opportunity to greet customers by name and offer high-value customers special services in person.