Sionic Mobile’s Digital ICE Platform Goes Private

Sionic Mobile’s ION Commerce Engine® (“ICE”), is now available for private label. A leader in mobile payments & rewards, the ICE Platform is good for financial companies. ICE can enhance their mobile apps, help get and keep customers and increase revenue.

Who does it help?

Prepaid debit, digital banks, marketplace lenders and digital asset exchanges can all benefit.

How does it help?

Merchants pay these mobile app providers to bring their customers through their doors.

Let’s breakdown the mobile app providers by type.

Prepaid Debit

Serving the under-banked, prepaid debit providers may now offer customer rewards. Companies like Green Dot and Netspend can tap merchant-funded rewards and increase profits.

Sionic Mobile can make baking pay & rewards inside prepaid mobile apps fast and easy. Most developers can add the feature in a few days and push app updates to stores in a week or two.

Digital Banking

Digital banks like Chime and SoFi can help customers increase their spending power. By paying with their mobile app at retailers, customers can get instant rewards.

Adding digital payments at retailers’ point of sale may increase banking transactions and revenue. It also makes it easy for customers to track their spending and rewards.

Marketplace Lenders

Affirm, Sezzle and other marketplace lenders offer “buy now, pay later” services. They may also increase customers’ spending power using ICE.

Tied to a checking account or debit card, these small loans help customers buy things over time.

Digital Asset Exchanges

Coinbase, Gemini and other cryptocurrency exchanges may offer outlets for their coins. Imagine using your app to buy a dishwasher at The Home Depot with USD Coins.

In case you missed the recent announcement from Bakkt via Biz Journals:

Microsoft, ICE join $300M investment into Atlanta cryptocurrency exchange

Following the investment, Bakkt then acquired loyalty provider Bridge2 Solutions. It is no coincidence Bakkt bought the loyalty company from the NYSE’s parent company, Intercontinental Exchange.

And now, this article from CoinDesk:

Bakkt Touts New Payment Integration With Starbucks

So, where is this all heading?

Sionic Mobile Understands the Battle for Loyal Consumers

In the end, the consumer is all that matters. Want more customers using your service? Add pay and rewards to your mobile app. Want to keep good customers from switching to a competitor? Add pay and rewards to your mobile app.

If you look at the mobile app providers above, what do they have in common? The target audience. Gen Z and Young Millennials? Yes.

A great quote from Bond, The Loyalty Report 2019:

“ Payments are not keeping up with Gen Z and Young Millennials. I use my phone to pay for everything and I’ll bring my wallet just in case the merchant doesn’t accept tap or if my purchase exceeds the limit…” — Alie Donnelly, Senior Research Manager, Bond.

I Use My Phone to Pay for Everything

That says it all.

Younger consumers raised with smartphones and digital wallets rely on mobile payments. According to the same Bond report:

“They’re highly influenced by Loyalty Programs (62% Gen Z and 67% Young Millennials); however, they’re less satisfied with programs overall.”

So, we have newer generations of consumers preferring to pay with their phones. And, these same consumers want a good rewards program.

Anything come to mind?

The ICE Platform underpins Sionic Mobile’s ION Rewards® and Mobile Rewards Marketplace (“MRM”). The MRM is a digital directory of U.S. merchants that accepts mobile payments using eGift Cards. As reference, Sionic Mobile raised a notable capital round shortly after launching ION Rewards, as featured in this Biz Journals article:

Mobile marketing biz Sionic raising $2.5M

Consumers paying with their phones at any merchant in the MRM can earn and use rewards at checkout. Earn rewards at your favorite pizza place. Use those same rewards for a movie.

It’s instant gratification at its best.

Debit Funding Means No Credit Card Fees

Another common thread among the mobile app providers is their core funding model. Checking account or debit card funding is key to profitability. By avoiding expensive credit card fees, the models work for everyone.

Want to reload your prepaid debit card? Drop by your nearby Walmart.

No branch banking? Enroll in direct deposit.

Spreading the cost of your new shoes over six weeks? Payments get deducted from your checking account.

Trading Bitcoins? Link your checking account.

Sionic Mobile: Digital. Payments. Rewards.

That says it all. Instant gratification at its best.