Billeo`s Offer AssistantPresents Discounts from More Than 360 Retailers Including Target, Best Buy, Nike, and Leading Card Loyalty Programs from Visa, American Express and UPside Prepaid
NEW YORK Finovate 2009 Conference -Billeo, Inc., the provider of the leading personal finance application that helps consumers pay bills and shop online, announced the launch of the Offer Assistant, a patent-pending, free service that for the first time, delivers real time shopping discounts and rewards directly to the consumer within their unsponsored search engine results. Billeo also announced a partnership with UPside Visa Prepaid Card that offers consumers redeemable points for purchases made with their card.
By working with financial institutions such as Visa and American Express, Billeo is able to provide merchant offers from over 360 retailers including Target, Best Buy, Nike and discounts and rewards affiliated with any financial institution`s loyalty program and present those offers when a shopper is searching to purchase online. According to ComScore, 70% of all online purchases start with a search, so the Offer Assistant allows consumers to search and purchase naturally online without having to remember to go back to a bank web site, or check email for discounts and rewards.
“Today, people spend a lot of time searching for great shopping deals online,” said Murali Subbarao, Founder & CEO of Billeo, Inc. “Offer Malls set up by banks, card-issuers, and associations require the consumer to shop directly at their site. And coupon codes found in one-off e-mail newsletters sent by banks and card issuers can get lost in email clutter. Billeo`s Offer Assistant is the first application that brings discounts and rewards to you when you actually need them-when you`re searching for something to buy online, or when you are at the checkout page. This gives financial institutions, card issuers and online retailers the ability to react to the consumer actions in real-time, influencing both the purchase and the payment mechanism used. It`s the first sense-and-respond service of its kind.”
With Billeo`s Offer Assistant, consumers searching for an item online are presented with icons indicating that a discount or several discounts are available for that item. This now gives the consumer the ability to evaluate and choose discounts and rewards from banks, financial institutions and online merchants in one place within the main, unsponsored search results of the three most popular search engines: Google.com, Yahoo.com or Bing.com. Furthermore, if a coupon code or a specific payment card has to be used on the checkout page, the Offer Assistant will remember to prompt the user during checkout, and assist in filling the coupon code. The Offer Assistant is the only service that presents discounts and rewards that are already available to a consumer through their various loyalty affiliations and presents them at the most relevant and natural moment-in the search and shopping process.
“At a time when consumers need to stretch their dollars further, it is important to make it easier for them to benefit from compelling merchant offers without requiring them to remember the Internet addresses of offer portals,” said Patrice Peyret, Founder & CEO of Plastyc which manages the UPside Visa Prepaid Card program. “Our cardholders look for products by initiating a search with one of the mainstream Internet search engines, and just follow the links to the results. With Billeo`s Offer Assistant, now our cardholders will be able to take advantage of the rich offers that we make available from over 200 mainstream online merchants.”
The Offer Assistant joins Billeo`s multi-faceted Assistant Suite that helps consumers with every aspect of the online transaction process. Billeo`s Password Assistant automatically logs the consumer in to a merchant site with their saved ID and password, and with Billeo`s Shopping Assistant, the consumer`s shipping, billing and payment details are automatically filled in during the purchase process. Billeo`s Splendid Search allows consumers to search for the electronic receipt of their online purchase by name, date, purchase price, etc. With Billeo, payments are directed to billing company and shopping websites, payments are instantaneous, and electronic receipts are automatically captured, saved and filed. Billeo`s award-winning solution for managing and tracking bill payments and online purchases recently received the Editor`s Choice award and a Four Star rating from PC Magazine. Billeo alsowon the 2009 CODiE Award for “Best eCommerce Solution” from the Software & Information Industry Association. Billeo is available at no charge at www.billeo.com. Billeo service is featured at over 40 of the top U.S.-based financial institutions, including: Visa, Discover, US Bank, Wells Fargo, and NetSpend.
About Billeo Inc.
Billeo gives consumers a fast, easy and intelligent way to exercise choice and control over their online purchases and payments. Billeo functions as the catalyst to make online purchases and bill paying as easy and financially rewarding as possible. Billeo was founded by experts from the EBPP, card issuer, banking, ecommerce and technology industries. Over 40 banks, 6 of the top ten card issuers and over 9,000 companies across 26 categories are part of the trusted Billeo network. For more information about Billeo visit www.billeo.com.
About the Finovate Conference
The Finovate conference is the first demo-based conference for the financial, banking and lending technology industries. Held annually in New York City, the conference offers a chance to explore the future of finance in a fast-paced and intimate environment. Finovate is organized by Online Financial Innovations. For more information please visit www.Finovate.com
About Plastyc
Plastyc, Inc. is a privately held US corporation focused on payment-enabling the “Millenials” generation in a responsible manner. Its first product is the UPside Visa Prepaid Card, a new generation of cards with low fees and unprecedented online access through websites, cell phones and a Facebook application. The UPside Visa Prepaid Card is issued by MetaBank. For more information visit http://www.plastyc.com/.