MasterCard upgrades loyalty service in India
MasterCard has signed a deal with processor
Venture Infotek to form Jackpot on the Spot, a new debit loyalty
programme to be launched in India.
The programme is frequency-based, meaning
merchants use incentives to encourage customers to perform repeat
transactions. The project is currently in testing, with 10
merchants involved. Full roll-out is to start soon, though it is
understood to be a three-year project. Venture Infotek is managing
the programme and deploying the terminals and Welcome Real-time is
understood to be providing the loyalty platform.
It is understood MasterCard, which has around
one third of the network cards market in India, behind Visa with
two thirds, wants to use the scheme to drive spending on debit and
prepaid cards in particular.
Interchange charged in India averages at about
1.1 percent for both credit and debit transactions, making spending
on debit cards highly lucrative for issuers. There are around 170
million debit cards in issue in the country and 25 million credit
cards, but spending and frequency of spending on debit is
relatively low.
It is the second upgrade to MasterCard’s
loyalty offering in as many months, following its tie-up with
US-based loyalty scheme provider Next Jump.