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Loyalty-program marketer Maritz Inc. has introduced a program that it says would deliver credit card rewards instantly to cardholders at the point of sale instead of forcing them to wait for points to accumulate monthly or quarterly, the company announced this month. St. Louis-based Maritz, which provides rewards services to several of the nation's top card issuers, is offering Maritz Real-Time Rewards to card issuers and merchants through a partnership recently inked with Welcome Real-time, which is based in Aix-en-Provence, France. Welcome Real-time has offered such point-of-purchase rewards programs for the past eight years in 31 countries, Thad Peterson, director of Maritz Real-Time Rewards, tells CardLine. Although rewards programs vary based on card issuers' and merchants' goals, in a typical example a customer can choose to use their points from a card issuer's loyalty program to pay for their purchase at the point of sale. In addition, merchants have the opportunity to provide customers with specific promotions based on their past purchases. "In Europe, these programs have boosted merchants' sales and helped merchants to see how accepting credit cards can be a benefit," Peterson says. Another benefit of instant rewards is that when customers see their rewards on a receipt at the point of sale, they are more motivated to participate in rewards programs, he says. Maritz Real-Time Rewards initially is marketing its service to large card issuers and "big-box retailers that sell larger-ticket items," Peterson says. The company is in talks with several organizations but has announced no deals yet.
