Visa and Reward launch global merchant marketplace for banks with personalized card linked offers from leading global merchants

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 18 May 2023: Visa, a world leader in digital payments and Reward, a world leader in bank loyalty, are extending their successful partnership in Europe by launching Rewards’ Global Merchant Marketplace in the UAE. The partnership will see Visa offering banks in the country access to best-in-market offers from leading merchants with Reward co-creating hyper-personalized offers and delivering them to Visa cardholders, digitally.

With Global Merchant Marketplace, Visa issuers, their cardholders and merchants, will benefit from personalized card-linked offers that drive value to all stakeholders.  Some of the benefits include:

• Visa cardholders can now earn merchant funded rewards when shopping in their home country and when travelling in 20 countries using Rewards' innovative ‘Home & Away’ X-border technology
  
• Issuers have the opportunity to communicate ready-to-market personalized offers to their cardholders from global, regional and local brands and benefit from increased card usage, spend and greater levels of satisfaction measured through NPS
• Merchants may benefit from accessing Visa cardholders through digital channels promoting highly targeted offers based on consumers spend in their stores and in the wider market

Otto Williams, Visa CEMEA Senior Vice President, Head of Product, Partnerships & Solutions says, “The Global Merchant Marketplace, Card Linked Offers Solution enables banks to offer their cardholders relevant and personalized merchant funded offers based on cardholders’ individual needs and spending preferences. It also provides a seamless customer experience, as the reward is automatically identified and credited to the cardholder’s account. This is a very powerful tool to complement existing loyalty offerings, to further drive meaningful customer engagement and build long-term customer loyalty for both the bank and participating merchants.”

Gavin Dein, the founder and CEO of Reward, explains, "It appears that almost every bank in the GCC has implemented a loyalty programme of some sort. Our collaboration with Visa allows banks to enhance the value they provide to customers via personalized merchant-funded offers on debit and credit cards. This arrangement results in a triple-win: customers benefit from increased rewards, banks profit as merchants cover the reward expenses, and merchants can allocate their marketing budgets in a highly personalized and accountable manner."

This launch comes as focus grows on customer engagement platforms to provide value enhancement via personalized offers to customers. The Global Merchant Marketplace also provides merchants with an omni-channel platform that delivers value to customers at scale across Europe, Asia Pacific and now the UAE, using the minimum required data and ensuring strict data protection mechanisms. 

The program provides customers with some of the richest retail offers, thanks to Reward’s Global Merchant Marketplace and their ability to deliver personalized card linked offers (PCLO) to Visa cardholders. The rich, data driven programme uses predictive analytics to ensure content is highly personalized to customers, with the region’s largest retail groups, including Al Futtaim Group, Eathos, Apparel, Landmark, Net A Porter, Selfridges and more, already participating.