Blackhawk Network and SKUx Announce Partnership to Transform Promotional Offers and Coupon Standards

By CIO Applications| Friday, March 26, 2021

The technology provided by Blackhawk and SKUx will help enhance the way retailers and brands engage with consumers, drive shopper engagement and loyalty.

FREMONT, CA: Global payments company Blackhawk Network, and SKUx, a rising fintech company, announced an expanded partnership intended to transform the offer, rebate, coupon delivery, and processing needs for today's cutting-edge merchants and brands. The partnership is poised to disrupt an industry that has remained relatively unchanged for over 25 years. With first-of-its-kind payments technology, Blackhawk and SKUx will digitize and automate offer delivery, redemption, and settlement—creating a more powerful experience for brands, a less demanding process for retailers, and greater value and ease for consumers.

The technology, powered by Blackhawk and SKUx, offers an end-to-end solution that can help solve many of the biggest pain points currently affecting retailers and consumer product goods (CPG) manufacturers, including:

• Accept and deliver unique, trackable offers that can be redeemed in-store and online

• Reduce impact to topline revenue and receive faster settlement on redeemed offers for merchants

• Manage campaigns and trade funds more effectively with faster redemption notification for CPG brands

• Eliminate overhead costs associated with fraudulent coupon use or mis-redemptions

"As the couponing and incentives landscapes evolve to better serve today's needs of an omnichannel retail environment, we are proud to be at the forefront of this innovation alongside SKUx and TCB. We look forward to working with our industry-leading network of partners to bring this solution to market," said Helena Mao, vice president of product at Blackhawk Network.

The technology also supports the new guidelines for a universal coupon standard set in 2020 by The Coupon Bureau (TCB), an industry-managed non-profit for manufacturers and retailers. Last year, the industry announced its roadmap for phasing out existing legacy coupon types and moving the industry toward a new universal digital coupon standard known as AI (8112) intended to enhance coupon security. TCB has been working with many of the largest CPG manufacturers and retailers on the adoption of these new universal digital coupon standards, and Blackhawk and SKUx have the technology available to help these businesses make this a go-to-market reality.

"SKUx is excited to bring to market with Blackhawk Network a real-time, omnichannel solution that offers increased value for the retailer, brand, and consumer," said Bobby Tinsley, SKUx co-founder, and executive vice president. "At SKUx, we are committed to transforming the end-to-end offer to payment to settlement system. Our proprietary serialized, digital platform—called Smart Incentives™—merges the best of technology with much-needed trust and transparency. And, most importantly, it creates a promotional experience that meets today's customer demands."