Packaged Facts: Private Label Credit Card Market Transitioning to a Digital World

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May 27, 2015, 05:02 ET

ROCKVILLE, Md., May 27, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- The retail industry is shifting quickly to mobile, premised on the customers' expectations of getting what they want in their immediate context and moments of need, not as part of a planned shopping trip. The trend is equally readily apparent in the private label card space, according to Private Label Credit Cards in the U.S., 9th Edition, a new report by market research publisher Packaged Facts. For instance, in 2014, some 15% of Synchrony Financial Services' private label credit card purchase volume was generated via online and mobile channels, demonstrating the consumer shift to mobile purchasing.

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Indeed the trend is part of a seismic shift in the private label credit card industry, brought about by a mixture of mobile app technology, customer relationship management advances, geolocational marketing initiatives, and closed loop virtual card payments. In this respect, the physical card that for long embodied the face of this industry is beginning to fade, subsumed by omni-channel loyalty platforms that provide not only a seamless customer purchasing and rewards experience across channels but also the opportunity to tailor marketing messages to those customers with a degree of specificity never before possible.

Adapting to the mobile trend, each major private label issuer has its own mobile credit application product—and consumers are using them. For instance, some 10% of Alliance Data Systems' Q1 2015 new credit applications came through web-enabled mobile channels, underscoring its importance as a customer acquisition channel.

These mobile credit application solutions can increasingly be found in retail mobile apps, which can now function as the remote control to the entire retail brand. The app is much more than just a mobile commerce solution, affecting the purchase decision process, brand loyalty and in-store activity. The shift is apparent at retailers of all shapes and sizes. For example, some 50% of beauty products retailer Sephora's ecommerce traffic comes from smartphones, and mobile sales comprise about 20% of sales. Sephora's app represents 40% of mobile sales.

Retailers are also adding location-based marketing solutions that provide a way around using competing solutions being developed by PayPal and Apple. Alliance Data Systems retail partners will soon have the option of recognizing their store-brand cardholders when they walk into the store with an enabled smartphone, allowing them to transmit personalized messages based on the customer's shopping preferences.

Yet while many of the best retailer mobile apps are those that do the mundane seamlessly and simply, the medium also provides opportunity to engage customers in new ways. This is seen in how the Shoe Carnival app is an extension of the retailer's unique, interactive in-store shopping experience, and users can spin the Daily Wheel of Savings and enter Scratch and Win contests or greater savings.

Private Label Credit Cards in the U.S., 9th Edition provides a wealth of insight on trends shaping this resurgent industry, helping market participants profit from them. Purchase your copy today by visiting: http://www.packagedfacts.com/redirect.asp?progid=87502&productid=8987417.

About Packaged Facts – Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com, publishes market intelligence on a wide range of consumer market topics, including consumer demographics and shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, consumer packaged goods, and pet products and services. Packaged Facts also offers a full range of custom research services. Reports can be purchased at www.PackagedFacts.com and are also available on www.marketresearch.com and www.profound.com.

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SOURCE Packaged Facts