InComm Nabs Adility to Bridge Mobile, In-Store (Dec. 11, 2012)
Dec. 11, 2012
Prepaid services provider InComm has reached a deal to acquire a majority stake in Adility Inc., a platform for “online-to-offline” commerce, which InComm will integrate into its existing in-store POS infrastructure in a bid to help retailers generate retail sales using virtual prepaid cards and coupons.
Adility enables retailers and brands to activate mobile gift cards in-store at the POS, as well as to manage and distribute digital coupons and promotions. The integration with InComm’s platform will enable consumers to select a digital prepaid card by scanning a QR code while in a store. The customer pays the cashier, who activates the digital card via the store’s POS system. Alternatively, a brand or retailer can provide an online coupon code to a consumer, who can then take his smartphone to a brick-and-mortar store and redeem it.
The acquisition of Adility “represents a strategic opportunity to enhance InComm’s positioning with its retail customers by adding a platform that can handle a retailer’s digital promotion creation, distribution, redemption and settlement,” Jeffrey Baker, executive vice president, mergers and acquisitions, InComm, tells Paybefore. “This is the first transaction platform that helps retailers bridge the online-to-offline divide by providing for the activation of prepaid products in retail stores and enabling electronic promotions online or via a mobile Web application.”
The influence of online and mobile promotions and coupons on retail sales has become more significant. Forrester Research estimates that more than half of all in-store retail sales will be Web-influenced in 2012, meaning a consumer used online research or offers to decide to make the purchase. “We created Adility recognizing the tremendous impact online and mobile-influenced commerce has today on offline retailers and brands,” said Thomas Cornelius, Adility founder and president, who will join InComm’s executive team to focus on the convergence of online and offline sales. The announcement follows InComm’s October acquisition of On-Line Strategies Inc., a Dallas-based software and services company that specializes in processing complex, high-volume, high-speed transactions.
