Alliance Data is a leading provider of tailored marketing and loyalty solutions, delivered through branded credit programs that drive more profitable relationships between the company’s brand partners and their card members. It developed a new capability, Frictionless Mobile Credit, that removes obstacles from the mobile credit card application process.
Objective and Context:
Most customers today expect a fast and convenient experience. No one likes lines, paperwork, or multi-step processes. Alliance Data’s incubation and capability teams are focused on delivering strategies to retail partners that make sense for how people like to shop while motivating the desired behavior and increasing purchase frequency, transaction size, and brand advocacy. The brand knew that applying for a credit card at a store needed to be quicker and simpler for the customer and the retailer, since research showed a double-digit abandonment rate during the traditional mobile credit application process. This led the team to create a way to make the credit application process frictionless.
Target Audience:
Alliance Data’s proprietary research indicates that “abandoners,” those who had started to fill out an application for a store-branded credit card but didn’t complete it, were often dissatisfied with the application process. Of those who indicated dissatisfaction, 52 percent indicated that the application process took too long. For abandoners who started to apply via mobile, the ease of the application process was rated as more important than for those who started the application process via a different method.
Creative Strategy:
Alliance Data designed a mobile credit application to add convenience, save time, and reduce the abandonment rate. The result, Frictionless Mobile Credit, provided shoppers with the ability to apply for a store-branded credit card in a matter of seconds.
Mobile Execution:
With Frictionless Mobile Credit, shoppers are prompted with signs in the store, promoting an easy way to apply for the credit card: through a simple text message. After a few keystrokes, consumers were on their way to applying for credit. Through Alliance Data’s proprietary process, a credit application was automatically populated using information from vast data resources.
Frictionless Mobile Credit significantly reduced the steps required to complete an application by approximately 40 keystrokes. Results have been strong:
Ultimately, these results validate that mobile credit applications will become even more common, and quicker, easier credit acquisition tools will be essential in helping retailers successfully welcome new customers to their brand and build profitable long-term customer relationships.
