Tag: USA

Wal-Mart to expand financial services

Posted by | Jun 20, 2007 | |

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. said on Wednesday that it intends to open 1,000 Wal-Mart MoneyCenters and launch a reloadable prepaid Wal-Mart MoneyCard, in a major expansion of financial services the retailer provides to its base of low-income customers.

The company earlier this year withdrew an application with U.S. bank regulators to operate a specialty bank in the face of immense opposition from politicians, consumer groups and community banks.

While Wal-Mart had insisted it wanted to use the bank to save money by processing credit-card and check transactions internally, consumer groups and banks feared the retailer would eventually provide other retail banking services, leading to the demise of community banks.

After withdrawing the application, the retailer said it would focus on introducing new financial services, and Jane Thompson, president of Wal-Mart financial services, said the company would have “a lot of things that will be coming out this year.”

Wal-Mart currently has 225 MoneyCenters and intends to expand that number to 1,000 by the end of 2008. The retailer said the centers, which are geared toward customers who are “outside mainstream banking,” offer money services like check cashing, money orders, bill payment and money transfers.

It will also launch the Wal-Mart MoneyCard, a reloadable prepaid Visa, that it is rolling out nationally with GE Money and Green Dot. It said the card can be used at all locations where Visa is accepted and at automated teller machines.

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New loyalty scheme brings revenue stream to retailers

Posted by | Jun 20, 2007 | |

Webloyalty has launched its shopper discounts and rewards programme in UK. The scheme has been running successfully in the US with 140 retailers and has now moved to the UK market with Interflora being the first retailer to sign up for the new concept.

Membership to the Webloyalty scheme is offered on participating retailers’ sites once a customers has completed a purchase. When a shopper would normally see a thank you for your order or click here to continue shopping message, an offer is highlighted – such as money off future purchases. They can then click through to the Webloyalty site and find out more or sign up for the scheme.

Interflora customers, for example, have the option to join Webloyalty’s Shopper Discounts and Rewards programme and received up to 40% off online purchases with retailers such as M&S, John Lewis, Asda, Tesco, PC World and Lastminute.com. New members also receive a GBP 10 cash back voucher towards their next purchase at Interflora.co.uk. This GBP 10 is funded by Webloyalty.

The retailer benefits from an extra revenue stream since Webloyalty pays retailers for each new member that signs up. It’s also adding value to the customer’s purchase and deepening the relationship between the retailer and shopper. Michael Barringer, Marketing Director of Interflora said that this, along with the transparency, is amongst the factors that made the scheme appealing to the company.

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USPS certifies Melissa Data with NCOALink Full Service Provider License

Posted by | Jun 19, 2007 | |

Melissa Data (www.MelissaData.com) has been licensed as an NCOALink Full Service Provider by the USPS (United States Postal Service). As one of only a handful of Full Service Providers, Melissa Data can update third party mailing lists and customer files against the full 48-month change-of-address file containing over 160 million change-of-address records, as opposed to the 18-month file provided to Limited Service Provider licensees.

In addition to offering full 48-month NCOALink processing, Melissa Data is the first provider to offer a 24-month processing service for the price of their 18-month service – with very low minimums so customers can affordably update small files. Faster turnarounds, increased automation and security are available to customers by using Melissa Data’s proprietary ListWare software, which extracts and formats only the fields required for NCOALink processing, then automatically merges the updated fields back into the customer’s original database.

NCOALink identifies customers who have moved, improving mail deliverability and reducing the costs and time required to forward mail. NCOALink fulfills the Move Update requirement for First-Class Mail automation and presort discounts. The Move Update requirement will also become mandatory to receive automation and presort discounts for Standard Mail in 2008. The USPS estimates that approximately 18- to 20-percent of households and businesses in America move each year. Businesses can save thousands of dollars on wasted, undeliverable mail by using NCOALink to find relocated individuals, families, and businesses.

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Google gives discount to FedEx users

Posted by | Jun 19, 2007 | |

Google Inc., owner of the most- popular Internet search engine, is offering discounts to customers of its online payment service who ship items with FedEx Corp., stepping up competition with EBay Inc.

Merchants using Google Checkout can save as much as 21 percent on express shipments, which are delivered in one to three business days, Mountain View, California-based Google said today on its Web log. Smaller discounts are available for international, ground and home deliveries.

“With the addition of significant shipping-via-FedEx savings, Google now offers merchants an even more compelling reason to adopt Google Checkout,” Piper Jaffray & Co. analyst Gene Munster said in a report. He rates the shares “outperform.”

The accord follows a similar agreement last week between EBay, which has a rival service to Google’s, and United Parcel Service Inc. EBay, the world’s largest online auctioneer, decided last year it wouldn’t offer Checkout as a payment option on its sites. Last week it also reduced advertising spending with Google.

Google unveiled Checkout a year ago as part of a plan to expand beyond its Internet-search business. The company added the service in the U.K. in April.

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Harte-Hanks Is Chosen by JCPenney as Its 'Supply Chain Provider of the Year' for 2007

Posted by | Jun 19, 2007 | |

Harte-Hanks, Inc., a worldwide direct and targeted marketing company, announced today that it has been awarded “Supply Chain Provider of the Year” honors by its client and leading retailer J. C. Penney Company, Inc., for 2007.

Harte-Hanks performs numerous supply chain and other services for JCPenney, among them the transportation planning and delivery management of various classes of direct mail to the U.S. Postal Service, and that of retail circulars and inserts to newspapers across the country. Harte-Hanks manages its logistics organization from its Deerfield Beach, FL, offices, with facilities nationwide.

At a recent JCPenney event honoring its vendors and suppliers, Harte-Hanks and its logistics team members were cited by the retailer for their dedication, advocacy, results focus, can-do attitude and problem-solving

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