For mobile commerce to be successful, consumers — not the merchants — have to be the driving force, and one of the few companies that has figured that out is our own Waltham-based e-Coupons service SavingStar, which is announcing a huge expansion on Monday.
Rather than trying to get consumers to forgo their credit cards or lure them with "game theory," as Square and LevelUp have done, SavingStar is doing something simpler — and maybe even nobler: They've spent the past three years trying to modernize the ol' grocery store coupon.
Launched in 2011, the digital grocery savings service began helping shoppers earn cash back on purchase at stores such as Stop & Shop, Hannaford, Shaw's, CVS, Wegmans, Roche Bros., and Price Chopper. The soon-to-be-announced expansion adds partnerships with Wal-Mart, Target, Kmart, Walgreens, Family Dollar and Dollar General.
Spun from Newton-based marketing corporation Upromise, SavingStar is a mobile app for Android and iOS that organizes and provides coupons from leading manufacturers — essentially the digital equivalent of the supermarket circular.
But it's more valuable to merchants than paper coupons because it encourages consumers to use their customer loyalty cards at checkout. And that gives the merchants better data about consumption.
As for consumers, they don't see the discount at the register, but in the form of rewards that accumulate as cash, transferable to Paypal, Amazon gift cards or a bank account.
It's brilliant, really. Nothing generates loyalty like checking your bank statement and seeing that a company has actually deposited money rather than withdrawn it.
In addition to the merchant partner expansion, SavingStar is also adding a new feature, allowing consumers to earn discounts just by taking a picture of their receipt.
SavingStar, which claims five million users, has raised $27.4 million in venture capital since its founding, including a $9.1 million fourth round last year, according to CrunchBase.
SavingStar is consumer-driven, and I wouldn't be surprised if a company like Amazon scoops them up soon.
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