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SurgePays Inc. is integrating its ClearLine marketing platform with Fiserv Inc.’s Clover point-of-sale technology set.
The integration will enable small and mid-size merchants to deliver marketing and customer-engagement strategies at the point-of-sale. The integration adds value to independent sales organizations’ offerings by providing advanced marketing capabilities at the point of sale, which provides ISOs a point of differentiation from competitors, according to SurgePays, a provider of prepaid wireless and point-of-sale platform services.
Merchants will be able to use the ClearLine platform to promote targeted offers, encourage social media interaction, and collect feedback from customers at checkout through Clover terminals. Merchants can also use customer data to create personalized marketing messages and promotions, loyalty programs, and upsell opportunities, as well as include location-specific QR codes on receipts that link to branded pages for rewards, reviews, and exclusive offers.
Other benefits include post sales engagement with the consumer via the receipt and the ability to promote merchants’ business on the POS screen before and after the completion of each transaction, the companies say.
Marketing campaigns can be managed through a centralized dashboard including QR codes, NFC interactions, and digital coupons.
Integrating a marketing platform to a POS terminal adds “significant” value for merchants, since “in every in-store retail transaction, the consumer’s attention is on the POS terminal—it’s the centerpiece of each transaction,” SurgePays chief executive and chairman Brian Cox says by email.
“From a technology perspective, reusing or repurposing the same device saves cost [and] time, and also means less clutter on the retail store counter,” Cox adds.
Other benefits to merchants include the ability to quickly set up a marketing effort and then forget about it as it runs throughout the day, Cox says.
The integration with SurgePays is expected to give ISOs selling Clover terminals “another layer of stickiness” by providing a value-added service that makes it “more challenging for a merchant to move to another platform,” Thad Peterson, a strategic advisor for Datos Insights, says by email.
“By integrating marketing into the Clover terminal, the merchant has an opportunity to directly reward the customer for the current sale or incent them to make an incremental purchase the next time they’re in the store,” Peterson adds.
The partnership with Clover is the latest in a series of deals SurgePays has struck with POS terminal and solutions providers. Earlier this month, the company reached a deal to integrate its marketing platform with payment and merchant solutions provider LANDI Global’s POS terminals, including its handheld devices.
Last month, SurgePays completed the integration of its ClearLine platform with terminal maker PAX Technology Inc.
PAX, which has an installed base of more than 50 million terminals in more than 120 countries, has an 8% market share in the U.S. payment-terminal industry, according to SurgePays.
Terminal makers are integrating marketing applications into their hardware for several reasons, observers say, including the opportunity to generate additional revenue and increase customer loyalty for merchants.
“If executed well and targeted, marketing platforms can generate incremental revenue with minimal additional effort on the part of the merchant, and that’s a win,” Peterson says.
The battle among terminal makers to improve value and create a clear point of differentiation from their competition is “never ending,” Peterson adds.
