E-commerce and payment processing provider First Data Corporation unveiled mobile vouchers (mVoucher) for merchants, enabling the delivery of offers to consumers through email or mobile device.
mVouchers — which store a prepaid value funded by the merchant or consumer product goods company — can be delivered as coupons, loyalty rewards, promotional rewards, contest rewards or general marketing initiatives. Once they get an offer, customers can redeem it online or in-store through a mobile device as an SMS or 2D barcode. Moreover, NFC support also comes built-in, even though it’s far from being widely used.
In addition to helping merchants issue coupons, the mVoucher system also supports an optional registration process to allow customers to opt-in to receive additional offers through e-mail or SMS. Furthermore, the service comes with the ability to reload funds, check balance and transaction information, locate the nearest physical store location and purchase additional mVouchers to send to others.
There you have it folks. It’s good to see more and more companies launching mobile payments solutions. Hopefully we won’t have to wait for too long for a day when mobile phone will effectively replace the credit card…