News and Views

K-Mart SVC

LOUISVILLE, Ky., Aug. 5 /PRNewswire/ -- When Kmart customers begin using their Kmart Cash Cards this month, they may not realize it but they'll be participating in a first-of-its-kind retail cash card program designed and implemented on Kmart's behalf by Stored Value Systems (SVS).

The Kmart Cash Card is the first retail cash card program to be implemented among mass retailers. The Kmart Cash Cards will be used as an electronic gift certificate, a convenient cash replacement for merchandise returns, an AT&T calling card and a budgeting tool for consumers.

"As a leader in the retailing industry, we chose to pioneer the retail cash card concept because it aligns with Kmart's commitment to enhance the shopping experience for our customers," said Mike Viola, Kmart vice president and treasurer. "We chose the SVS solution because of its comprehensiveness and compatibility with our current operating system."

"Consumers want convenient transactions, and retailers are looking for their own place in the world of electronic cash," said Delroy R. Hayunga, SVS president and chief executive officer. "Retail cash cards reflect a convergence of these two demands."

But the real power of the cards, according to Hayunga, is their ability to increase sales.

"They're merchandisable in the store and promotable outside the store," he said. "Retailers can finally take gift certificates out of the drawer and put them on the shelf. They can also mount powerful, card-based promotional programs either for themselves or in concert with promotional partners."

According to Tom Recktenwald, SVS executive vice president of sales and marketing, retail cash cards enable retailers to tap into the full potential of the consumers' penchant for gift-giving. Additionally, business customers are distributing the cards as a means to incent and reward employees for performance.

"Gift cards are the universal gift," said Recktenwald. "They're not only simple to buy and easy to redeem, they're gratifying to give and appreciated when received.

"Retailers also experience sales lift when customers spend the last remaining card value on an item with a higher price tag," he added.

Beyond incremental sales, retail cash cards enable retailers to minimize the amount of cash they give back to consumers for merchandise returns, particularly when items are, returned without a receipt or after an extended period of time.

"Retailers experience double jeopardy when they give cash back for returned merchandise," Recktenwald said. "Not only is the previously committed revenue likely to walk out the door, it often walks right into the competitor's checkout lane."

Recktenwald further explained that many retailers also expect to market retail cash cards to their consumers as a creative device to budget and manage their family's spending behaviors. He also noted that the retailers themselves expect the electronic program to be a significant cost reduction to their manually intensive, paper processes currently used in administering gift certificate and refund programs.

To make Kmart's retail cash card program work, the SVS solution integrates Kmart's point-of-sale system and AT&T's calling card function with SVS' retail cash card platform. SVS also provides Kmart with a comprehensive set of services including, but not limited to, card production, real-time transaction processing, database accounting and management reporting.

"Our expertise in banking, data processing and point-of-sale systems means SVS can deliver the retailer a relatively simple implementation of a complex and financially sensitive application," Hayunga said. "Our experience enables us to complete this implementation in 60 to 90 days from contract execution. And the recent addition of the telephone calling card component to our platform confirms our intention to continue providing retailing leaders with creative enhancements to their private-label, retail cash cards."

Thurman’s Phonecards

Having recently added prepaid phonecards to their line of products and services, Northwest regional retailer Thurman Pay N Pak had had their phonecard producer, Gazelle Telecards of Seattle, Washington issue a limited edition promotional phonecards to be given away to their retail customers as a "Thank You" for 44 years of shopping at their stores. The cards will be distributed at Thurman’s stores throughout the Northwest through a variety of venues over the next few weeks.

There were 750 production cards and 25 test cards produced. Cable & Wireless is the long distance provider, and the cards expire in January of 1998. They are good for 5 minutes of long distance calling. For further information, Contact Gazelle Telecards at (888) 860-9359, or e-mail them at metalcore@aol.com

CompuServe News

"CompuServe reportedly is developing a Web site which will include free, read-only access to its more than 500 user forums, according to a report by Inter@ctive Week online. The story characterizes the forums, really online communities, as the service's "crown jewel" and says the risks of putting them on the Web free are "enormous" because their usage cannot be measured and therefore cannot generate online access charges. CompuServe's executive producer of online services, Bob Kington, said, "We know we're giving away a lot of value here, but we have to develop a way to expose more users to our community," Inter@ctive Week reported. Each forum will include links to additional content which can he seen for a fee."

The above paragraph was from a press release. What this has to do with phonecard collectors is that the new Telecard Forum that will open soon will be accessible (at least to read messages) to people who do not subscribe to CompuServe. For those of you not familiar with CompuServe, it currently has an active phonecard section, where people buy, sell, trade, and discuss phonecards. In the near future, there will be an entire forum dedicated to phonecards, and the information will be accessible to those not with CompuServe (with the hope that they will decide to join)

Racing Card Blues

Collectors Communications, which was one of the companies the West's owned in addition to Finish Line racing cards, recently was bought by another long distance company. I was informed a few days ago that the Finish Line part of the company was dumped by the new owners - basically through Bankruptcy. I tried using one of my $25 Jumbo cards (expires the end of this year) and even though the carrier is GTSI, it is not working. I get a fast busy when I dial the Customer Service 800 #

From: Brian Chanin

BT Update

Last week it was reported that BT (UK Phone Company) would send 10 cards, but not to businesses. Mark Townsend wrote to say that he tried, and they do give cards for business telephone numbers.

TETLEY TEA

A 5 minute LCI phone card is inside boxes of 100 tea bags. There are 6 different cards, each has a cute cartoon-like character talking on the phone. When all 6 cards are put together it looks as if they are all talking to one another with phone lines entwined. The cards are enclosed in cellophane and have a scratch off strip to reveal the PIN. Time expires 2/28/98. Look for boxes with a yellow phone and the words "free 5 minute phone card inside" on the front. All 6 cards are illustrated on the bottom of the box.

From: The Phonecard Shopper

AT&T Offer

The following offer was enclosed with my current AT&T bill.

Buy two 60-minute AT&T PrePaid Cards and get one 30-minute AT&T PrePaid Card FREE. To order, call 1-800-437-0973 ext. 43059. The offer expires 1/31/98.

From: Anthony Janakas

Target Offers

In today's Target ad (8/10) there are not one, but two offers for phonecards!

1) Purchase a Looney Tune watch for $14.99 and get a 10 minute Looney Tune phonecard. The illustration shows Bugs Bunny on the card.

2) Purchase a Texas Instrument calculator (TI-83 is one model in the ad $88.98 ) and get a 30 minute phonecard.

Also, if you apply for a credit card from SunTrust bank you will receive a 10 minute phonecard. It's a simple looking card, part of the eath and the name SunTrust in the upper left corner.

From: Clark Holder

Until Next Week,

Alan

Distribution

Phonecards On-Line is written and distributed by Alan Cohen. It is a weekly newsletter devoted to phonecards - Current news, viewpoints, and reviews of new issues. It is distributed free of charge, and available two ways.

1) On-Line on the World Wide Web. The address is: http://www.cardmall.com - All back issues are archived at the web site!

2) Direct e-mail. Send a message to: phoneline@cardmall.com

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