Research and Markets: Retailer Cards in Europe: Co-Branded, Loyalty and Private Label Programs

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/cb0a44/retailer_cards_in) has announced the addition of the "Retailer Cards in Europe: Co-Branded, Loyalty and Private Label Programs" report to their offering.

“Retailer Cards in Europe: Co-Branded, Loyalty and Private Label Programs”

Retailer Cards in Europe: Co-Branded, Loyalty and Private Label Programs is a report, based on a survey of 3,175 prominent retail brands in 32 countries, about the provision of payment cards and loyalty programs by major retailers across Europe. Retailer participation in coalition loyalty schemes is also considered.

Countries covered are Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, UK, and Ukraine.

In total, the research identifies over 800 retailer payment cards,1,100 proprietary retailer loyalty programs and 50 coalition loyalty schemes, thereby providing a definitive analysis of retailer co-branded, loyalty and private label programs in Europe that goes far beyond the scope of previous published research. Moreover, the PartnerBASE database that accompanies the report details each of the many initiatives for retailer credit, deferred debit, debit and rechargeable pre-paid cards traced by Finaccord, specifying the operating models used by retailers, the payment networks to which the cards are affiliated and the identity of the ultimate card issuers in each case.

This report and the PartnerBASE that accompanies it can be used in one or more of the following ways: gain rapid access to a unique pan-European source of intelligence covering virtually all significant retail brands across an extremely wide range of geographies; monitor the activity of key national and international competitors in the retailer payment card sector including the many European subsidiaries of Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citibank, Crdit Agricole, Deutsche Bank, GE Capital, HSBC, IKANO, Santander and Socit Gnrale; evaluate the potential for acquiring the existing cardholder portfolios of retail groups by purchasing equity stakes in captive card issuing entities; understand the potential in each country for converting existing proprietary retailer loyalty cards into fully-fledged payment cards; learn more about the growing number of coalition loyalty programs across Europe including the payment cards that have been launched as a result of their popularity: coalition schemes researched include AIRMILES, Bonus Card, Deutschland Card, Maximiles, Multipont, Nectar, PAYBACK, Pika, Plussakortti, Supercard, Trumf and Webmiles.

In addition, proprietary and coalition loyalty schemes that amass a significant number of members can eventually be converted into cards with a payment function, thereby providing justification for their inclusion in this publication. Indeed, coalition loyalty programs can be particularly important in terms of the number of members that they accumulate and the number of active programs in Europe is continuing to increase each year. These encompass a variety of initiatives including bank-owned schemes, online programs and propositions oriented primarily to travel rewards. Furthermore, dynamics in the retailing market itself also give rise to increasing rationale both for cobranded and private label or store card programs and a comprehensive pan-European study on the subject.

Key developments in the retailing sector include:

• increasing usage of payment cards, generally, as a payment mechanism in preference to cash, cheques and other traditional alternatives, thereby encouraging retailers to develop their own cards in order to capture a share of the payments market;
• retailer consolidation in both more and less developed markets which helps to produce national champions with the branding, muscle and general profile needed to succeed in the payment card sector in these countries;
• retailer growth in the less developed markets as an increasing proportion of consumers allocate their expenditure to formal retailing concepts as opposed to informal street markets and the like;
• a mature environment for retailing in the more developed markets which signifies that retailers need to investigate new means of achieving revenue growth which can include financial services, in general, and co-branded or store cards, in particular;
• increasing internationalization which potentially paves the way for cross-border alliances between retailers and mainstream card issuers as epitomized, for example, by the link between Carrefour and BNP Paribas Personal Finance.

What is the report structure?

0. Executive Summary: providing a concise evaluation of the principal findings of the report.

1. Introduction: offering rationale, description of methodology and other related notes.

2. European Overview: comprising a pan-European overview of the activity of major retail brands in co-branded and private label payment cards, proprietary loyalty programs and coalition loyalty schemes. In addition to a comparative analysis of operating models used by retailers in the area of payment cards, this section also analyses the extent to which retailer cards are affiliated to American Express, Diners Club, MasterCard, Visa and other international payment brands in each country and provides a comprehensive listing of retailers operating through captive or joint venture card issuing arms. Consumer research data illustrating the importance of retailers as distributors of credit and pre-paid cards in Germany and the UK is also included in this section.

3. Austria: an in-depth analysis of the market for retailer co-branded, loyalty and private label cards in Austria. Key partnerships between major Austrian retail chains and card issuers are identified and commented upon for both co-branded and private label cards while detailed commentary is also provided for both proprietary retailer loyalty programs and coalition loyalty schemes.

** To view the reports full table of contents, please see the sample provided **

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