Karen, Nice seeing more coverage on card-linked offers but don't be misled by how these EDO, Cardlytics, Linkables, Cartera,....use the term "targeted". All use data generated from the bank collected data and that is simple spend total data which just shows total amount spent, where spent, and how frequently the spend occurs at select retailers. There is no itemized information collected so a Petco spend of $50 doesn't let them know if the consumer has a dog, cat, or parrot. More important is this data enables only generic type offers they call "targeted" (5% off at Petco, 10% off at Target) and these deals are funded 100% by the merchant with no help from any particular brand or supplier. Retailers have tight margins so they are not going to want to give away margin randomly on an ongoing basis. The solution needs to come from the merchant side of the transaction where real SKU data is available on brand name items as that enables the retailers to get compensated from those brands for running an offer on their behalf. That leads to more offers as the cost is not fully borne by the merchant and it leads to true targeting (where you can get dog owners the dog products and cat owners the cat related products). The trick is retailers do not want to share SKU data so any system needs to make sure merchant processing is done closed loop where the data remains in the control of the retailers. That is patented via PayCode Inc. and we are bringing this now to major strategic partners who can scale both retailers and Issuers.

Thanks!

Robert W. Connor Jr
PayCode Inc