Retailers and their private label credit card partners continue to refine their retailer-specific mobile apps, which provide a very important customer loyalty and engagement nexus that increasingly includes payment and loan options. Market research firm Packaged Facts covers the industry in Private Label Credit Cards in the U.S., 11th Edition, a June 2019 research study published in Packaged Facts’ recently rebranded “Payment Cards and Services Market Reports” vertical.
Packaged Facts finds that retailer-specific mobile apps have been downloaded by 44% of credit card users, 82% of whom have used them in the past 30 days. And among credit card holders who use retailer-specific mobile apps, breadth of use is robust. Among 15 possible usage methods (from getting retailer offers/discounts to store browsing to earning points and rewards) the average credit card holders had used almost nine.
Of note, 58% said they had used a retailer-specific app to pay for a purchase at the retailer, while 32% said they had used one to get instant special financing from the retailer. Among those financing options are short-term installment loans, which are finding their way into more and more retailer-specific apps.
In partnership with Synchrony Financial, online retailer Zulily offers a card that provides a seamless and convenient option for the online retailer’s fans to shop its more than 100 daily sales events. But what’s most unique about the card is its Smart-pay option, an installment option that lets users spread payments across three separate charges. Each amount is added to the card-holder’s balance every 30 days.
Compared with some other retailers, Forever 21 pushes the convenience of its credit card almost as much as its financial rewards. Like Zulily, Forever 21 also seeks to curry favor among the budget-conscious by offering Afterpay, an installment payment option. However, unlike Zulily, Forever 21 offers this option to consumers no matter how they pay—and not in connection with the private label card (Forever 21 partners with Alliance Data Systems for its card program and with Afterpay Touch Group for these loans).
These installment loan products not only provide financing options that customers may find more manageable than carrying an open-ended balance on a credit card, but also can be used conveniently and instantaneously in the app as part of the checkout process, a potent mix that surely helps drive loan growth and retailer sales.
About the Report
Private Label Credit Cards in the U.S., 11th Edition, provides a wealth of insight on this growing market, with an emphasis on program features and benefits analysis, loyalty program integration, program- and issuer-specific market sizing, and digital applications. The analysis in the report:
- Provides loans outstanding and purchase value estimates for the U.S. private label credit card market by issuer for 2016-2018, and a loans outstanding and purchase value forecast for 2019-2021, with forecast factors.
- Presents additional assessment of more than 20 individual private label credit card programs, including loans outstanding and purchase value.
- Assesses the industry shift to mobile and digital, including retailer mobile app usage and interest by feature and how mobile increasingly fits into the loyalty and card strategies of major retailers.
- Assesses consumer usage and active usage of private label credit cards segmented by retailer type, as well as monthly private label credit card spending and portion of balance paid.
- Assesses the degree to which a variety of credit card features and benefits would incentivize credit card users (private label and non-private label) to sign up for a new private label credit card and would incentivize private label cardholders to use them more often.
- Assesses U.S. private label card programs operated by the industry’s leading financial institutions, including Alliance Data Systems, Citi Retail Services, Capital One, Synchrony Financial Services, TD Bank and Wells Fargo, including private label card purchase value and loans outstanding by retailer.
- Trends general-purpose credit card and store card usage penetration, usage in past 30 days, and monthly usage frequency during 2011-2017.
- Assesses the impact store cards have on the type of payment used at the point of sale, receptivity to promotional marketing and tendency to act on that marketing.
View additional information about Private Label Credit Cards in the U.S., 11th Edition, including purchase options, the abstract, table of contents, and related reports at Packaged Facts’ website: https://www.packagedfacts.com/Private-Label-Credit-Cards-Edition-12443463/.