Crayon Data - 8 Keys to Marketplace Success

AI MARKETPLACE

8 Keys to Marketplace Success

THE PROBLEM

For any bank or payments company with millions of customers, it is crucial to drive spends and ensure that customers perceive significant value in using them.

To accomplish this, the enterprise usually partners with numerous merchants to secure hundreds of attractive offers for cardholders. Despite the substantial effort invested in curating and marketing these offers, the desired impact is not achieved.

This approach does not deliver sufficient value to either the customers or merchant partners. <2% customers utilize the offers, and 50-65% merchants do not see any redemptions.

Key Challenges Faced

Sourcing and Maintaining Offers is Difficult

There is uncertainty about whether the right offers are being sourced, and maintaining and regularly updating these offers proves to be difficult

Relevance is Missing

Offers are perceived as irrelevant to individual customer needs

Discovery is Challenging

Customers struggle to find the offers they desire

Accessibility is Limited

Customers are unsure how or where to access the offers, as they are scattered across multiple platforms, leading to inconsistency and confusion

Awareness is Lacking

Customers are unaware of the available offers

Engagement is Low

Customers lack motivation to return to the marketplace

Measurement and Learning are Missing

Tracking of performance to improve offers and marketing strategies is insufficient

Tech Bandwidth is Insufficient

Bandwidth for cleaning transaction data, running models, and enhancing them based on feedback is limited

WHY MAYA.AI

We have deployed maya.ai Offers marketplace for 70M customers, globally. Based on this experience we have created '8 Keys to Marketplace Success' checklist.

8 Keys for Marketplace Success

Key Questions

Key questions faced by Banks and Payment Companies

1Simplify Sourcing:
How can we simplify offer sourcing, management and support?

WHAT SHOULD BE THE RIGHT MIX OF OFFERS?

Do we focus on quantity or quality of offers?

Provide a diverse range of offers to cater to various customer interests and needs, making the marketplace more appealing and useful. Balance the number of offers to avoid overwhelming customers while keeping the selection engaging. Regularly update offers to maintain freshness and relevance, encouraging continuous engagement and preventing stagnation.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides offers relevant to the bank's portfolio. The exact numbers can vary based on the size of the bank and their requirements. Marketplace for a mid-to-large-sized bank (500K - 1M customers) will ideally have 400-600 offers. The focus is more on quality than quantity of offers.

Do we focus on breadth of categories or depth within categories?

Ensure there is enough variety within each category to provide ample choice for customers.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

The quantum of offers on Marketplace will vary based on the portfolio. For a mid-to-large sized bank (500K - 1M customers), Marketplace can provide 400-600 offers across 6-8 categories and 60-120 offers per category for a mid-to-large sized bank (500K - 1M customers).

Do we focus on popular merchants or niche merchants?

Provide a mix of popular and niche options to cater to a broad range of customer interests.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Do we ensure that offers are relevant to customer's spend behavior?

Align offers with customer data, interests, trends, and feedback to make deals more valuable and personalized. This drives better performance, strengthens customer loyalty, and improves overall marketplace success.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace leverages portfolio data to inform merchant and offer sourcing. This goes beyond traditional top spend list here to create target lists using high MoM growth merchants, seasonal preferences, RFM analysis, and affinity models. The data driven target list is refreshed every 60-90 days. Also, customer's feedback on marketplace (likes/dislikes) are used to further prioritize sourcing of relevant deals)

Do we also have supply of international offers?

Provide international deals to cater to a broader customer base, including travelers and expatriates seeking global options, enhancing the attractiveness of your marketplace.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace comes with supply of 1000+ international offers across GCC, India and South East Asia. These are reflective of our current engagements with the banks in the region. Our merchant sourcing team can procure offers from other markets as needed.

WHERE DO WE SOURCE OFFERS FROM?

Do we tie up with aggregators?

Leverage aggregators with extensive networks to access a wide range of offers from various brands and retailers, simplifying the sourcing process.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace integrates with aggregators through APIs to provide supply of offers to banks. Some aggregators that marketplace has integrated with include Admitad, Involve Asia, Rakuten

Do we leverage direct merchant partnerships?

Establish direct partnerships to secure more favorable terms, such as higher discounts, exclusive deals, or better commissions.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace ingests offers from direct merchant partners to provide supply of offers to banks. Some examples of direct partnerships that marketplace has integrated with include Loyolink, Savoll

Do we leverage existing network offers from Visa, Mastercard?

Partner with Visa and Mastercard to leverage their extensive global networks, gaining access to a broad range of merchants and deals across various regions. This collaboration adds credibility to your offers and enhances consumer confidence in the deals provided.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides offers from Visa and Mastercard. With Crayon Data's partnership with Visa in South East Asia, the marketplace is able to also provide cross-border VISA offers.

HOW DO WE MAINTAIN OFFERS?

How do we capture offers from all sources in one place?

Centralize offer aggregation by using a platform that collects and manages deals from various sources in one location.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform enables sourcing, tracking and management of merchant offers from multiple sources.

How do we get good images?

Use high-quality images to attract attention and make offers more appealing, enhancing the overall aesthetic and professionalism of the marketplace.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform has in-built capabilities to ensure high quality images are used while onboarding. Additionally, the build partnership with Google provides access to Places API, which augments the image repository and access to Vertex AI which enables creation of AI generated images.

How do we get clear descriptions & terms?

Clearly communicate the offer's benefits, restrictions, and conditions to ensure customers fully understand it, reducing confusion and potential dissatisfaction while building trust.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform has in-built capabilities to capture clear descriptions and terms and conditions. Additionally, the build partnership with Google provides access to Vertex AI, which enables creation of AI-driven descriptions.

How do we get store locations for POS offers?

Provide detailed information on store locations, including maps and directions, to meet customer expectations. However, regularly update and verify store location data, as merchants may frequently change their formats or addresses.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform captures merchant address while onboarding and utilizes Google Places data to obtain accurate and up-to-date store locations for point-of-sale (POS) offers.

How do we ensure that the offer URLs for online offers are valid?

Ensure that URLs for online offers are valid and reliable to meet customer demands.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform ensures that the offer URLs for online offers are valid while onboarding by using complex regular expressions and HTTP Response Status codes. This approach proactively notifies incorrect URLs, maintaining the relevance and accuracy of the marketplace.

How do we ensure that expired offers don't show up?

Exclude expired offers to prevent customer disappointment and maintain the marketplace's integrity and effectiveness.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform runs a daily job to identify expired offers and suppresses them from the list of recommendations to be displayed on the marketplace.

How frequently do we get new offers?

Regularly introduce new offers, ideally updating them weekly or bi-weekly, to meet customer preferences for a steady stream of fresh deals.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Offer Management Platform can ingest offers in near real-time in case of API-led integrations with partners, affiliate networks, aggregators and can ingest daily batch feeds from other systems.

HOW CAN WE PROVIDE EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER SUPPORT?

Do we include FAQs to empower users to resolve common issues on their own?

Create a well-organized FAQ section to streamline problem-solving, saving time for both users and support staff.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace has a FAQs section to help users resolve common issues on their own.

Do we provide a mechanism for customers to raise their issues?

Provide visible and accessible support options to minimize frustration and build trust, ensuring customers feel the platform is reliable and attentive to their needs.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace has a Feedback section to help users raise their issues.

Do we provide a support team to handle customer inquiries and issues?

Maintain a dedicated focus on customer support to prioritize user concerns and feedback, ensuring that customer issues are addressed with appropriate attention and urgency.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Level 1 contact for customers will need to be Bank’s customer support to safeguard PII data. An L2 support team can be provided by Crayon Data to handle customer inquiries and issues if all merchants are sourced by Crayon Data. If the bank is working with other vendors to source offers, then queries and issues can be passed from Bank team to vendor’s dedicated customer support for resolution.

What will be their availability?

Ensure support availability during standard business hours, typically from 9 AM to 5 PM, five days a week, in the primary time zones where your users are located.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

L2 support team can be provided by Crayon Data to handle customer inquires and issues for 8 hours/day, 22 working days in a month

What will be the process of issue resolution?

Implement a structured issue resolution process to ensure efficiency, consistency, and clarity. This approach helps prioritize and address issues systematically, keeps customers informed, minimizes errors, and enhances customer satisfaction.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Level 1 contact for customers will need to be Bank’s customer support to safeguard PII data. If the bank is working with a vendor to source offers, then queries and issues can be passed from Bank team to vendor’s dedicated customer support for resolution. Customer has to discuss with merchant on the dispute and standard resolution mechanisms to ensure faster TAT and superior customer experience. For example, in case of a valid discount not being honoured, merchant should provide the customer a compensation of equal/larger value through store credit/voucher code/gift card etc.

What will be the TATs for issues?

Set clear expectations for Turnaround Time (TAT) based on the complexity and severity of issues, as effective communication with customers is crucial for maintaining trust and satisfaction.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

TATs for resolution vary based on size of merchant and kind of partnerships. They usually range from 3-7 business days.

2Enhance Relevance:
How can we increase offer relevance on marketplace for customers?

Do we personalize based on spend behavior?

Deliver personalized experiences to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty, making customers feel understood and valued.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides recommendations in the form of Netflix-like lists. Customers can view 1:1 recommendations and personalized offers based on their spend behavior and current context.

Do we personalize based on location?

Provide location-based offers to deliver promotions and discounts at nearby merchants, making deals more actionable and appealing to customers.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides a location picker tool to show relevant nearby offers. If location sharing is enabled, then marketplace automatically shows relevant offers for that location.

Do we personalize even when travelling abroad?

Tailor offers based on customers' travel locations to enhance their experience with relevant deals for local businesses, accommodations, and attractions. This approach adds value to their travel experience and boosts engagement with the marketplace.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides supply of international offers and these are made available either as separate category on the marketplace, or when choosing the international destination in the 'location picker' feature.

Do we personalize for seasonality/ topical events?

Leverage seasonal and event-based offers to capitalize on customer interest during specific times, driving higher participation and satisfaction.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace displays personalized offers on 10-15 out-of-box Netflix-like lists. Some of these lists are configured for events, holidays, festive occasions. Additionally, the Marketplace UI is flexible to accomodate changes to suit a particular shopping season/ festive occasion. Changes can be done to colors, menus, listings, fonts. New banners can be added. New kinds of offers can be promoted.

How often do we refresh the offers?

Provide regular updates, ideally with weekly offer refreshes, to keep the marketplace dynamic and meet customer preferences.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace refreshes the offer for every customer based on customer's interaction with the recommendation, customer's spend behavior and availability of new offers from merchants. The frequency of refresh can be daily/ weekly/monthly depending on the bank's ability to share data at a agreed upon frequency.

Do we provide a consolidate view across multiple cards owned?

Deliver a unified experience across all accounts to ensure consistency and ease of use, meeting customer expectations.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace will personalize the recommendations based on the spend behavior from across multiple cards. For example, if a customer spends more on grocery on card A and spends on travel on card B, then the customer will see personalized lists for both grocery and travel

3Simplify Discovery:
How can we simplify offer discovery on marketplace for customers?

Do we provide a search functionality?

Provide robust natural language search functionalities to help customers find offers quickly and efficiently, meeting their expectations.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides a keyword based search functionality that allows customers to quickly find offers that match their interests and needs.

Do we include category based menus and options to filter?

Enable filtering by category to help customers easily navigate and find relevant deals, enhancing their experience.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides categories as menus and options to filter, making it easier to navigate and find relevant deals.

Do we have a location picker?

Provide geo-targeted offers that display deals available in customers' vicinity, adding value to their experience.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace experience will change by location with recommended merchants being more relevant to the current location while accounting for customer’s preferences and needs. Customers will also be able to view these nearby merchants on a map.

Do we provide international offers to satisfy customers travelling abroad?

Offer the ability to find deals in other countries while traveling, providing customers with value and convenience.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace comes with a supply of international offers that customers can redeem even while travelling abroad.

Do we include all possible details about the offer?

Provide comprehensive details, including terms, conditions, expiration dates, and redemption instructions, to meet customer expectations.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace has a page for every merchant which provides details about the offers available including terms and conditions, expiration dates and redemption instructions.

4Improve Accessibility:
How can we improve marketplace accessibility for customers?

Do we make it be accessible on app or website?

Offer the flexibility of accessing the marketplace through both a dedicated app and a responsive website to meet customer preferences.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace can be accessed on app and website. Marketplace can be deployed on a PWA which can be viewed on website or on mobile browser. Additionally Marketplace APIs can be provided for deep integration within mobile app.Existing client deployments cover both scenarios.

Do we make it available on our domain?

Provide a seamless experience by keeping all offers and features within the platform, eliminating the need for customers to visit external URLs.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace can be hosted on Bank’s domain and in such situations, customers need not have to go to an external link.

Do we make it be available pre-login or post-login?

Implement a streamlined login process that integrates with existing accounts, such as social media or email logins, to enhance user convenience and accessibility.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace can be experienced in both pre-login and post-login scenarios. The login mechanisms can be configured based on bank's needs, it could either be based on last 4 digits of card number and mobile number or the internet banking id/SSO login from mobile app

Do we make it available across channels?

Ensure the marketplace is accessible across multiple channels, including mobile apps, websites, and social media, to provide customers with convenience and flexibility.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace is available in multi channels. Customers can access marketplace on a PWA, on website, within mobile app and on any other channel like Email, SMS, WhatsApp that the bank is using today to communicate with customers.

Do we brand it consistently across channels?

Deliver a consistently branded experience across all channels to provide customers with a cohesive and recognizable identity.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace is consistantly branded across channels since it is powered by a single API.

5Increase Awareness:
How can we improve marketplace awareness for customers?

Does it involve running marketing campaigns?

Promote the marketplace using multiple marketing strategies:

Email Marketing: Send personalized emails with offer recommendations.
Social Media Marketing: Use paid ads to target users on social channels.
Public Relations (PR): Issue press releases for partnerships and major updates.
Educational Campaigns: Informative content such as banners, blogs, and videos on existing websites and apps.

Does it involve running them across channels?

Implement a multi-channel approach, including social media, email newsletters, mobile push notifications, and search engine marketing, to meet customer demands and ensure maximum reach and engagement.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides a single API that can be integrated with channels like Email, SMS, WhatsApp that the bank is using today to communicate with customers.

Does it involve running them frequently?

Maintain customer engagement by running campaigns monthly with weekly touchpoints, providing consistent updates without overwhelming them.

6Boost Engagement:
How can we improve offer engagement on marketplace for customers?

Do we run campaigns to increase engagement?

Offer targeted campaigns like loyalty programs, personalized recommendations, and exclusive previews to meet customer preferences and enhance their experience.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace comes with the ability to curate 4 campaign types: weekly campaigns to promote new deals/merchants, event based campaigns based on the holiday/shopping/festival calendar for the country, category based campaigns to increase spends within a category, objective based campaigns (to drive activation, discovery, spend increase, contain declining spends, revive stopped spends). These campaigns are usually made available as banners on the marketplace and are personalized for every customer.

Do we run campaigns for specific user groups?

Target specific user groups with tailored campaigns to effectively address the unique needs and preferences of different segments, resulting in more relevant and engaging offers.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides the flexibility to curate campaigns for specific user groups. These groups can be categorized based on further criteria as needed like card type or merchant category or spend decile or active/inactive.

Do we run them across channels?

Utilize different channels to reach diverse audience segments, ensuring broader exposure and engagement. A mix of channels caters to various user preferences and behaviors, making it easier to connect with people through their preferred mediums.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Customers can access marketplace on a PWA, on website, within mobile app and on any other channel like Email, SMS, WhatsApp that the bank is using today to communicate with customers. Marketplace API can be integrated with these channels.

How often can we run the campaigns?

Adopt a balanced approach by running major campaigns monthly and deploying targeted campaigns as needed to meet customer preferences.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace can curate campaigns at daily/weekly/monthly frequency. Objective based campaigns usually run for 1-2 months. Event based campaigns run for 1-2 weeks at different times of the year. Certain campaigns like spend stimulation campaigns can be configured to run on a weekly basis.

7Implement Learning:
What metrics do we track to measure & improve the marketplace?

What KPIs do we track to measure customer engagement?

Track KPIs such as active user count to measure user engagement over time, session duration to assess the average time users spend on the platform, page views to gauge content consumption, and interaction rates to evaluate user engagement with platform elements.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace has an in-built mechanism to track engagement metrics like visits, list views, interactions, wishlists, claims, avg length of session, click rate, claim rate, bounce rate

What KPIs do we track to measure offer performance?

Measure offer performance by tracking key metrics: redemption rate for usage, engagement rate for interactions, conversion rate for purchases, offer expiry rate for unused offers, and revenue impact for spend contributions.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace has an in-built mechanism to track offer performance metrics like redemptions, $spends, overall response rate, ticket size, merchant coverage, customer coverge, top categories, top offers

What KPIs do we track to measure impact on spends?

Analyze KPIs such as average transaction value, purchase frequency, and overall sales growth to assess how offers influence customer spending. These metrics help us understand the financial impact of our offers.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace measures impact by comparing lift in performance ($avg spend/customer) across test and control groups over campaign and pre -period. These metrics can be viewed separately based on status (active vs dormant) as well as by merchant category

How do we use feedback to improve the algorithms and customer experience?

Utilize feedback to fine-tune algorithms, ensuring they better align with user needs and preferences. This enhances personalization and accuracy in recommendations while helping to prioritize critical aspects of the customer experience, ensuring development focuses on high-impact areas.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace provides a mechanism for customers to wishlist, like/dislike, share the offer recommendations. This data is captured and analyzed to improve the recommendation quality. This process refines the algorithms and enhances the overall customer experience.

How do we use feedback to source better offers?

Continuously evaluate the performance of newly sourced offers in terms of user engagement and redemption, and use feedback to refine and enhance future offerings.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace rank orders every offer on a weighted score based on position of the offer on the marketplace, search volume for the offers, customer's digital interactions on the offer (wishlist, like/dislike/share/claim), offer redemptions. This score is aggregated at a category level to understand category attractiveness. The Merchant Success Team uses this data to talk to merchants to improve offer attractiveness or source other offers in the same category is the category is performing well.

8Minimize Tech Bandwidth:
How will you protect customer data, ensure we have the necessary information, and minimize the impact on out tech and data teams?

What data do we need for identifying the right offers?

Combine information on user interests, past purchase behavior, and preferred product categories with current trends and popular products or services to tailor offers to individual tastes and align them with market demand.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Ideally, the Marketplace would need the anonymized transaction data and existing offers data to provide a relevant supply for the bank's portfolio.

What data do we need to personalize the offers?

To personalize offers effectively, gather data on purchase history and behavioral interactions, while considering customer context and demographics. Additionally, include seasonal and current market trends for timely relevance.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace can personalize the experience based on: Context – location, day, date, time; Clickstream data – views, likes, redemptions; Historical transaction data

Do we need to share PII at any stage?

Avoid sharing PII data. Anonymize data to reduce privacy risks while still obtaining valuable insights.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

No, Marketplace does not need PII at any time

Where will the data be stored?

Store data in encrypted databases that comply with relevant data protection laws and regulations, ensuring the privacy and security of customer information.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Data for Marketplace is usually stored on the cloud (AWS/ Azure/ GCP). The data can be stored on the Bank's tenant or Crayon Data will create a separate VPC for the bank to store data on it's tenant. 1. Offer data will always be stored alongside offer management platform in the same hosting region. 2. User Data will always be stored alongside the Web app in the same hosting region. 3. For reporting and tracking purposes, offer data will be moved to the same region as user data.

Where will the marketplace be hosted?

Host the marketplace on secure and reliable cloud-based servers, providing scalability, uptime, and protection against data breaches.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace should ideally be hosted on Bank’s domain within cloud provider of choice for the bank. In case of multi-country deployments, the marketplace deployments should ideally be clustered around regions having the cloud.

How will the hosting environments be secured?

Secure the environment with advanced security measures, including firewalls, encryption, regular security audits, and compliance with industry standards.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Crayon Data can deploy the Marketplace on any cloud that the bank chooses to. This can be within the bank's tenant or within a VPC created within Crayon Data's tenant. The Marketplace is secure since the security is provided by the cloud provider chosen by bank.

Will there be any integrations to our systems?

Use modular solutions and centralized platforms that offer built-in features and APIs that can easily integrate with systems

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace does not need integrations as it can ingest flat files from systems of record for consuming data and can provide APIs for connecting with systems of engagemnet. In situations where the bank already has invested in multiple tools and desires a near-real-time feed of data and experiences, integrations can be built with CDPs, Data Lake Houses, Marketing automation platforms.

What resources do we need from our side to extract or prepare any data?

Implement automated data extraction and transformation tools to reduce manual effort and reduce complexity of processing.

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace does not need any tech support from the bank to extract data. Marketplace can ingest data via flat files if already available or can connect to bank's data lake if accessible. In situations where data is spread across multiple systems, Crayon Data can create a custom data lake for consuming the data required by the Marketplace.

What resources do we need from our side for any integrations?

Utilize standardized APIs to ensure compatibility and reduce the complexity of creating and maintaining integrations

maya.ai's Marketplace:

Marketplace does not need any tech resources for building integrations.However, availability of bank's technology teams to advice Crayon Data's tech teams on tech landscape, schema of data will be necessary to ensure the integrations can be built by Crayon Data quickly.