i-Coupons leverage card processing connections and infrastructure to enhance the consumer experience, integrate seamlessly into the Point of Sale (POS), improve coupon reconciliation and provide shopper insights:
i-Coupons are easy to set up in MCP using a Web-based graphical user interface that allows you to specify a range of parameters down to a fine level of granularity:
i-Coupons work with MCP’s cutting-edge marketing module, Campaign Manager, that empowers you to target and deliver the right offers to the right consumers across all contact points (SMS, e-mail, Web, IVR)—offers that are electronically redeemed at specific merchant locations within highly-customizable, promotion-specific parameters. For purposes of illustration, using i2c’s technology, McDonald's could offer all male cardholders between the ages of 20 and 30 who live in the 10023 zip code and who have shopped at a Burger King in the last 30 days an i-Coupon good for 20% off a minimum $10 purchase if used between 2:00pm and 5:00pm on Tuesdays.
i-Coupons can be delivered to consumers using several communication channels:
Once consumers opt in to receive i-Coupons and set their communication preferences, they receive i-Coupon offers—by SMS, e-mail, Web, or IVR, depending on their preferences—based on their history of purchasing, their location, or any other criteria related to their prepaid card program activities or promotions. They can choose whether or not to accept the offers—again by SMS, e-mail, Web, or IVR—and go about their business.
Consumers can view i-Coupons offers on a cardholder Web site related to specific cardholder activity, such as i-Coupons generated as a result of cardholder transactions at restaurants (MCC=restaurant).
Figure 1 shows how consumers can view and accept (or reject) offers of i-Coupons on a cardholder Web site. Consumers can see new offers and also sort offers by accepted, declined, redeemed, partially redeemed, and all.
Figure 1: Viewing and Accepting i-Coupon Offers on a Cardholder Web Site
Figure 2 shows an example of the consumer experience of i-Coupons and details a cardholder’s activities and what happens on the back end that makes i-Coupons so straightforward, easy, and transparent for the consumer.
Figure 2: Example of Consumer Experience Flow of i-Coupons
Consumers do not have to visually or physically present their i-Coupons at the time of purchase to use them. Coupon redemption is automatic and occurs in the authorization stream in real time when the cardholder makes a qualifying purchase. As a result, there is no question of validation of the coupon and no chance of fraud.
The costs of accepting, moving, processing, and reconciling coupons that are often so high with traditional and digital coupons are significantly reduced with i-Coupons. The activities of accepting and moving the coupons are completely eliminated, and i-Coupons processing and settlement are completely automated on the back end using i2c’s technology. Table 1 shows some important milestones in the financial settlement process for coupons and how i-Coupons satisfies them.
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Table 1: How i-Coupons Satisfy Important Milestones in the Financial Settlement Process
i-Coupons and MCP provide detailed analytics and reporting so that retailers and brands can gain insights into consumers’ behavior and habits that are invaluable not only in tailoring new and ongoing i-Coupons promotions, but also in calculating ROI for specific i-Coupons programs.
For prepaid card programs running i-Coupons, MCP can provide analytics of consumers’ card usage, including frequency, shopping times, stores, and transaction descriptions and amounts. i-Coupons analytics can break down i-Coupons acceptance and usage down to the individual consumer, including merchants frequented, products purchased (for SKU-enabled programs), times and dates of purchases, and length of time between acceptance and usage for each i-Coupon, as well demographic data such as sex, age, and location.
Building on the example presented earlier, McDonald’s could find out how many of the i-Coupons sent to male cardholders between the ages of 20 and 30 who live in the 10023 zip code and who shopped at a Burger King in the last 30 days were accepted, and of those, how many were used, when on which Tuesday, and for what purchase amount.
With MCP, a variety of standard reports are available with the platform, and the reports can be customized for output, scheduled to run regularly, and sent to the appropriate stakeholders by e-mail. Custom reports can also be requested and implemented as a business-development request.
