Oser Communications Group

tnewpproducts h o tec Visa and Samsung Working to Accelerate Merchant Acceptance of Mobile NFC Payments; Making Electronic Payments More Secure Visa and Samsung recently announced an alliance that will combine Visa's expertise in payments with Samsung's leadership in mobile device technology. The companies believe that their alliance has the potential to significantly accelerate the acceptance of mobile payments by merchants across the planet. Near Field Communication technology is the global communication standard that enables mobile devices to securely communicate with a payment terminal. ABI Research forecasts that a total of 1.95 billion NFC-enabled devices will ship annually by the year 2017. The Visa Samsung global alliance is a first of its kind between a leading NFC handset manufacturer and payment network that is paving the way for the implementation of large scale mobile payment programs. According to the agreement between Visa and Samsung, financial institutions that are planning to launch mobile payment programs will be able to use the Visa Mobile Provisioning Service to securely download payment account information to NFC-enabled Samsung devices. In addition, Samsung will load the Visa payWave applet onto all of its mobile devices that feature NFC technology. Visa payWave enables consumers to make "wave and pay" contactless payments using mobile devices. "Samsung devices enabled with Visa payment functionality will no doubt be a powerful product offering, especially in markets where paying with a mobile device is becoming commonplace," said Jim McCarthy, Global Head of Products for Visa. "However, the key to making mobile payments broadly available all over the world is to offer financial institutions a secure way to provision millions of smart- phones with payment account information, and that is exactly what Visa and Samsung are ready to deliver." In order to enable merchants of all sizes to accept electronic payments using Visa payWave on Samsung devices, Visa has also announced an agreement with leading mobile commerce provider ROAM, an Ingenico company. Together, the companies aim to displace cash payments by expanding the reach of electronic payments to new merchant categories, and by making it easier for merchants and acquirers to take advantage of secure mobile acceptance solutions. ROAM is a leading provider of mobile acceptance technology, delivering hardware peripherals, applications and services that enable merchants to realize the benefits of electronic commerce. As part of the agreement with Visa, ROAM will bundle its mobile point-of-sale hardware peripherals with Visa's acceptance solutions to offer merchants a cost-efficient and secure way to accept card payments. "Displacing cash payments with the security and efficiency of electronic payments continues to be a primary driver of growth for the global payments industry," said McCarthy. "Visa, through its mPOS partner program, is committed to accelerating the use of mobile technology to enable merchants worldwide to accept Visa payments. Our agreement with ROAM will help us reach that goal globally." Visa is a global payments technology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries and territories to fast, secure and reliable electronic payments. For more information on the company, visit www.corporate.visa.com. n Over 42 Percent of Surveyed Female Coupon Users Prefer SMS-Based Promotions RadiumOne, a leader in programmatic advertising, recently announced findings from its mobile coupon research study: "Improving The Performance of Mobile Coupons." The survey analyzes how women between the ages of 35 and 54 engage with coupons on their mobile devices for household purchases. According RadiumOne's findings, 61.9 percent of female respondents have redeemed grocery and consumer goods retail coupons. Of those, 42.4 percent cited a preference for receiving SMS-based coupons on their mobile phones. Among those in advertising, it is a wellknown fact that women are extremely influential over consumer purchase decisions, including everything from automobiles to health care. The rise in social and mobile provides brands with an untapped opportunity to connect with this crucial demographic, one that often feels misunderstood by advertisers. The RadiumOne report and survey further validates the belief that women often hold the purse strings for their families, and it shows that women are relying on mobile as a way to better manage purchases. Of those surveyed, 61.9 percent redeem grocery and consumer retail goods-based coupons, and a significant 42.3 percent prefer SMS-based coupons. "As the predominant household decisionmakers, women consumers represent a gaping opportunity for brands to capitalize on the mobile coupon trend," said Kamal Kaur, Vice President of Mobile at RadiumOne. "We're starting to see a pivotal shift in brand campaign strategies that are increasingly focused on reaching mobile audiences. Mobile coupons in particular, are a great way to increase engagement, conversion rates and ultimately return on investment." The ability for brands to identify consumer behavior and understand when people are most likely to interact with them on their handheld devices is critical when designing a multi-channel media strategy. Currently, retailers are delivering coupons in four different ways, including scanning a QR code, checking-in on a mobile application, tapping their phone on a point-ofsales terminal, or redeeming coupons via digital loyalty cards. "RadiumOne's thought leadership is im- portant to industry efforts to create a unified mobile coupon ad unit standard," said Adam Lavine, Chairman of the Mobile Marketing Association Mobile Coupon Ad Unit Standards Committee. "RadiumOne's…report provides insights that will further the power of mobile coupons for brands, retailers and consumers." RadiumOne is changing the face of online advertising through a unique combination of programmatic buying, proprietary data, patent-pending intelligence algorithms and multi-channel capabilities. Spanning the Web, Mobile Web and Facebook, RadiumOne offers advertisers the ability to reach the right consumer at the right time, no matter where they might be. To learn more, visit www.radiumone.com. n CQuotient Unveils Personalized Email Marketing Technology for Retailers Retail technology company CQuotient recently unveiled its newest innovation, enabling retailers to send highly relevant digital communications to individual customers. By using the most advanced machine learning and predictive algorithms, CQuotient's technology harnesses big data from all customer touchpoints, creating a dynamic predictive portrait for each individual. The technology then decides which customers should receive which email message and at what time and sends automated emails personalized for each recipient. Email remains the best marketing channel for retailers looking to get more revenue from their customers. Not only is it inexpensive, easy to personalize and highly trackable, but email also has the broadest reach to store web and mobile customers alike. As customers have come to expect more from the retailers they frequent, the "batch and blast" email approach is no longer sufficient. Customers are looking for more personal communications tailored to their interests, tastes and buying behaviors. "Retail is a tough business and is only getting more competitive with…the ubiquity of smartphones," said CQuotient Founder and CEO Rama Ramakrishnan. "Retailers understand that the only way to survive and grow is by developing loyal customers and getting them to spend more with you than with the competition. "Retailers are already making thousands of decisions a day to entice customers, [including] price changes, new receipts, promotions, etc. The key is surfacing the specific enticements that are most relevant to an individual customer. In this way, your marketing can become a customer service, not a promotion. This is what CQuotient does, and the demonstrated increases in both engagement and revenue prove that it works." CQuotient's email marketing technology includes several specialized capabilities. First, retailers employing the technology gain the ability to dynamically tailor the content of email messages to each individual recipient, making it as relevant as possible. Using pre-built dynamic content containers within a retailer's email templates, CQuotient can show any number of specific in-stock items that the recipient is likely to find interesting. Combining this with the ability to show a specific offer that triggers the particular behavior a retailer wants from that customer results in a truly unique and com- pelling message to every individual customer on a retailer's email list. In addition, the technology also automatically assembles segments based on customer lifecycle, merchandise propensities and channel preference. CQuotient's advanced models predict who is most interested in which messages, enabling retailers to precisely target their message to those who most want to hear it. CQuotient offers retailers breakthrough technology for hyper-personalized email marketing. By capturing data from every customer touchpoint, mining behavioral signals using advanced predictive algorithms and overlaying deep retail domain knowledge, CQuotient enables marketers to drive substantial incremental revenue via highly relevant, individualized emails. For more information, visit www.cquotient.com. n May/June 2013 C onvenienceRETAILER 19

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