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03/11/2009 -
When it comes to payment processing, most businesses focus on the benefits of credit card processing, such as improved cash flow and sales. However, a hidden benefit of many POS terminals is that they can be used to process store brand gift cards and rewards cards, which extends payment processing benefits into even marketing and product development.
For example, Starbucks recently announced the creation of a new rewards program that provides incentives based on the frequency of purchases, not the amount, MediaPost's Marketing Daily blog reported.
Dennis Armbruster, managing partner for LoyaltyOne Consulting and contributing editor to Colloquy magazine, said that the new rewards program "indicates a desire to capture deep transactional data across its broad customer base," he told the news provider. "The data could be used to inform product development, test new experiential in-store strategies and create customer panels, among other things. Certainly, it will be used for more one-on-one marketing."
Businesses interested in using their POS terminals for rewards programs are encouraged to talk with their payment processing provider about equipment options.
