Loyalty and rewards

Barclays plc has spent years experimenting with creative ways to promote mobile payments, and it's not showing signs of stopping.

Through its acquisition of digital payments and fundraising provider Benefit Mobile, the National Gift Card company is positioning itself to help charitable organizations grow and to strengthen the mobile offerings of retail merchants.

Consumers are willing to pay a bit more for repeat business at a merchant. By passing these fees on to shoppers, small retailers no longer have to cut vital operational costs to accommodate for lower margins from loyalty programs, says Robert Maynard, the founder of SurchX.

Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is launching its first credit card through Japan’s expanding JCB card network, targeting young adults who like to travel throughout Asia.

One solution would be to move to infrastructures where card issuers can share the cost of offering rewards with the retailers — making it a win-win-win situation, according to Mehmet Sezgin, CEO and founder of myGini.

Game day is a big day not just for athletes — anyone who sells pizza, chicken wings and beer will also win big if they have the capacity to handle all of the orders that come in. Many are turning to mobile and online technology to increase sales and remove friction from the payment process.

Often considered a rival to mass transit, Uber is inching closer to public transportation by embedding Denver's system for routes within its app, with the capability to purchase and use tickets coming soon.

Uber is expanding its rewards to cover more U.S. cities, yet the program continues to stay complicated and stingy — consumers may need to spend up to $500 on eligible rides and Eats purchases just to get a $5 Uber Cash reward.

Starbucks is being pressured to add an in-app option for deliveries rather than redirect customers to Uber's app.

Discover leaned heavily on rewards to drive new card acquisitions and sales growth in the fourth quarter, but suffered a double whammy of rising reward costs and higher charge-offs, causing it to miss analyst earnings expectations.

A 2017 agreement with Marriott International that kept the hotel chain's card portfolio with American Express and JPMorgan Chase will take a brand marketing turn in February, but leave both issuers as partners.

American Express’ ambitious multi-merchant rewards program, Plenti, failed last year, but it wasn’t a total loss. FIS took several lessons from Plenti that it’s applying to its own evolving payment card rewards program.

The news may seem overdue, but this isn't a story of two Goliaths battling it out. It's a tale of one Goliath beating multiple Davids — slowly, methodically, and one at a time.

Square's new card for business owners does something very bold with debit — and very troubling for banks.

India’s ICICI Bank is rolling out a loyalty program for consumers who regularly send remittances to India via the bank’s Money2India online platform and app.

Dynamics has launched an interactive credit card with India's IndusInd Bank that allows consumers to choose between three different funding sources when making purchases: credit, points and installment payments.

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.