News

First Data buys mobile loyalty platform Perka

October 29, 2013

The payments processor First Data Corp. has confirmed its acquisition of Perka, which provides a smartphone-based loyalty platform for small and medium-sized merchants.

Perka, based in New York City and Portland, Ore., became a First Data subsidiary on Oct. 4 and will retain its current management and product development team, First Data announced.

Perka bills itself as an alternative to the paper punch card, with merchants creating a unique set of loyalty rewards and incentives tailored to their business. When customers make a purchase at a participating merchant, they check in using the free Perka smartphone app or by sending an SMS text message, the company said. The check-in displays the customer's name and how actively he or she shops on the merchant's mobile tablet, Web page or linked point-of-sale system.

That lets merchants get to know their regular customers better, the company said, and the merchant validates each purchase as the consumer continues to collect points until redeemed for selected perks. Business owners can also deliver custom messages and special offers directly to customers' phones that encourage repeat visits and additional sales.

Perka said it operates loyalty programs for businesses ranging from neighborhood coffee shops to ultra-modern retailers and supports active merchants in all 50 U.S. states, Canada, the U.K., Australia, Africa and Latin America. Its cloud-hosted platform for retail stores and sit-down restaurants provides personal marketing and incentive programs to consumers and features merchant-validated transactions, triggered offers, mobile messaging and retail customer relationship data for the merchant, the company said.

"The loyalty industry is rapidly moving from being proprietary and closed to open and interconnected," Perka CEO Alan Chung said in a news release. "This shift opens up tremendous opportunities for small and mid-sized businesses to run virtually the same mobile marketing programs as major brands."

As consumers increasingly shop on mobile devices, First Data President Guy Chiarello said, they expect loyalty to be part of a seamless shopping experience. "With Perka's open and scalable platform, merchants of any size now have agility to customize a mobile loyalty marketing program that works for their business needs," he said in the release.

Learn more about loyalty programs.