Cashback and vouchers add an extra step to the customer journey that customers may find confusing, but Birdback has received financial support to remove this complexity.
Birdback has secured a successful $2.4 million of investment for its card-linked marketing product led by Passion Capital, with Luke Johnson, Playfair Capital, #1seed and Quidco founder Paul Nikkel also contributing to the grand total.
All this extra cash will help Birdback roll out its card-linked marketing to publishers, retailers and financial institutions. The first three countries to benefit will be the UK, France and Brazil.
No more printing
With Birdback’s card-linked marketing, consumers do not need to register and print out a voucher to save money in a clothes shop for example. Instead, a customer’s card number is entered to link or activate the offer.
The consumer then visits the clothes retailer and makes a purchase with the same card it used to register. After the transaction a notification is sent by email, SMS or the retailer’s own app to advise the consumer that there is cashback on its way.
Differing flavours
The concept is not entirely new in the UK. Cardlytics was one of the first providers off the mark, tying up a deal with Lloyds Banking Group, which has already bundled the technology into its Halifax and Lloyds Bank brands.
Cardlytics is not exactly the same, though, it functions on the account side. While it does provide offers through banking systems, these are only available to account holders and have to be negotiated from bank to bank.
Birdback differs by integrating itself into the payment processing system used by retailers. Therefore it is not reliant on any single bank and Birdback doesn’t need to negotiate partnerships to provide consumers with deals.