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Merchants using the newly released Evo Snap Mobile smart-phone and tablet-based point-of-sale service from Evo Payments International can create and manage loyalty, rewards, and promotion programs in addition to accepting payments.
Melville, N.Y.-based Evo says the Snap Mobile service, available globally, works with iOS and Android devices. In addition to accepting payments made with magnetic-stripe cards, the service also works with contactless payments, such as Apple Pay, when a compatible contactless card reader is used.
Evo expects to add chip card acceptance for Europay-MasterCard-Visa (EMV) payments in the first quarter, which will work with chip-and-PIN and chip-and-signature authentication methods, says Peter Osberg, Evo senior vice president of Evo Snap. The EMV reader will connect to mobile devices via a Bluetooth connection, he says. Evo works with multiple reader manufacturers, he says.
Merchants using the service can tap into the data captured during a transaction to create and manage a variety of customer acquisition and retention programs via its Connect platform. It enables merchants to link consumer data with payment and marketing services to create and manage loyalty programs, card-linked offers, and rewards at the point of sale. For example, a merchant could offer consumers an electronic punch card that works with a consumer app, Osberg says.
Merchants can see how many offers they sent, how many have been redeemed, and other program data, he says.
Evo Snap Mobile is available as a white-label product enabling Evo’s sales partners and merchants to use it with their brands, Osberg says. He would not disclose pricing for the service, but says it is based on use. The rewards, promotions, and loyalty components each have their own pricing, he says. Merchants also pay the typical discount rate for processing payments.
The mobile version of Snap complements Evo’s e-commerce and back-office payment products, Osberg says. “We’re a processor. We’re an acquirer,” Osberg tells Digital Transactions News. “Our job is to take care of payments for our customers.”
Providing a suite of services beyond payments may aid Evo, says Paula Rosenblum, analyst at consulting firm Retail Systems Research LLC.
“Anything that streamlines a retailer’s operation is a good thing,” Rosenblum says. “Having ‘one throat to choke’ makes life a lot easier.”
Retailers that meet the consumer where she wants to interact, whether it’s online, at the checkout counter, or in the aisle with a smart phone or tablet, makes sense for them, she says.
Small merchants in particular may have an interest in Snap Mobile, Osberg says. One reason is because of the October 2015 liability shift, which will assign liability from point-of-sale card transactions for any resulting counterfeit fraud to the party in the transaction—card issuer, merchant, or acquirer—that doesn’t support EMV. The other is these merchants want to find new customers, take care of their existing ones, and increase their customers’ shopping, Osberg says.
