Considering the exciting news coming out of the prepaid industry and the positive forecasts for continued growth, we have established a new section in The Green Sheet devoted exclusively to the prepaid marketplace.
The Green Sheet Inc. launched the Web site Selling Prepaid.com in March 2008. Since then, prepaid has evolved at light-speed, with big players like First Data Corp. and the major card brands staking out territory in the sphere. But the moves and shifts of smaller companies with ferocious business plans and innovative ways to capitalize on the numerous uses of prepaid cards have been equally intriguing.
ISOs and merchant level salespeople (MLSs) need look no further than the merchants in their portfolios to recognize opportunities to grow revenue and increase merchant stickiness with such prepaid products as virtual gift, open loop reloadable, travel, teen, transit, payroll, health and wellness, remittance, and game cards.
Additional selling opportunities reside in merchant-funded discount networks domestically and with mobile payments internationally. And prepaid processors, program managers and software vendors are implementing reseller channels to distribute their products and services to a wider array of merchants and consumers.
The possibilities do not end there. Mercator Advisory Group reported that the U.S. network-branded prepaid market alone was $38.7 billion in 2007, up 44.5 percent from 2006. As market segments continue to expand year after year, the opportunities will likely keep pace.
Also, consumers are now using gift cards as personal budgeting tools - an activity that couldn't have been predicted five years ago. And as the economy continues to stumble, consumers will increasingly turn to prepaid cards as an alternative to credit and debit cards. The purchasing power of a new generation of consumers and their creative use of payment cards are other compelling factors.
Featuring SellingPrepaid in The Green Sheet will help more ISOs and MLSs recognize the potential for prepaid to help sustain and increase their profitability in the years ahead.
The Green Sheet Inc. is now a proud affiliate of Bankcard Life, a premier community that provides industry-leading training and resources for payment professionals. Click here for more information.
Notice to readers: These are archived articles. Contact names or information may be out of date. We regret any inconvenience.
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