Card-Linked Transactions Grow 50 Percent

Written by FinTech Futures
12th April 2016

Card-linked transactions have grown at least 50 percent in the past 12 months for more than half of companies in a new survey report from the CardLinx Association. That compares with the 10 percent growth rate reported by the majority of companies in last year’s survey, the trade group says.

“Merchants and brands are pouring money into more personalized and experiential marketing and social media campaigns for card-linked offers, which attracts more consumers to card-linking,” the report said.

The report focuses on consumers linking their credit and debit cards to digital coupons, loyalty programs or mobile wallets. The report says that 70 percent of firms report using card-linked offers or marketing campaigns within the last 12 months. (It was not immediately clear how many companies took part in the survey, but trade group members include such firms as Affinity Solutions, American Express, Bank of America, Bankrate, Cardlytics and Discover.) The report found that 96 percent of companies plan to continue their card-linking efforts.

That’s because of the success of such programs: 43 percent of companies report that card-linked offers and loyalty transactions have doubled over the last 12 months, with a further 33 percent reporting growth of at least 30 percent.

The report also found that users prefer offers with percentage-off cash-back discounts, with 38 percent of respondents expressing that view. That compares with 26 percent for discounts offering a fixed dollar amount, 12 percent desiring loyalty points, 4 percent wanting a buy-one, get-one-free deal, and 16 percent who said “other.” (The remaining 4 percent is unaccounted for.)

When it comes to card-linked offers, restaurants stand as the best merchant category for such programs, followed by department stores, clothing and apparel merchants and grocers.

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