Loyalty and rewards

Banks and payment companies are already comfortable using artificial intelligence to guard against fraud. The tech could soon be just as welcome in creating payment products and matching them to potential customers.

Citi wants to attract credit card customers who use its card for staples such as groceries and gas — a pivot from its past of marketing to the social butterflies who would use its cards on dining and entertainment.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

FIS is collaborating with loyalty marketing firm Excentus to extend FIS’s consumer loyalty program to 13,400 U.S. Shell fuel stations.

Neither Amazon nor Starbucks could be described as a traditional retailer. But they both use their shared headquarters city as a playground for developing digital and in-store innovations that all merchants and payment companies will have to respond to the years ahead.

The video game industry serves a decidedly digital, tech-savvy audience with a propensity toward digital payments, but has been plagued by inconsistencies in payments to developers and a lack of a consistent rewards program for loyal players.

Mobile payments technology has fallen short of expectations in major markets, particularly the U.S., where less than 10 percent of consumers routinely use devices to pay in stores — despite more than four years of aggressive development from large technology companies and banks.

Even the best technologies take time, making it necessary to rein in expectations about what will happen and won't happen in the coming year.

Today’s customers demand seamless experiences. They want simple loyalty solutions without the clutter of tracking their rewards and coupons, according to Francis Hondal, president of loyalty and managed services at Mastercard.