BOSTON & NEW YORK—In line with its commitment to provide broader and more effective marketing solutions to merchants, social commerce leader BuyWithMe today announced that it has acquired Edhance,Inc., a card-linked loyalty provider. As a result of this acquisition, merchants partnering with BuyWithMe will now be able to create voucher-free customized loyalty and rewards programs that drive repeat, long-term engagement with their consumers. Furthermore, this is the first time merchants will have true transparency into the ROI associated with their daily deal promotions and ongoing loyalty offers.
“This acquisition fundamentally changes the daily deal industry and is a true win for our merchants and consumers alike,” said Jim Crowley, CEO of BuyWithMe. “The daily deal model is an incredible demand generation tool for merchants, but until today the industry has failed to provide merchants a means to create, manage and measure not just deal results but ongoing customer loyalty, reward and engagement programs post the initial promotion.”
The BuyWithMe card-linked offer platform solves this problem by allowing merchants to create ongoing merchant-specific, customized reward and loyalty offerings to all, or to a targeted subset, of their customers. These offers are automatically redeemed when BuyWithMe subscribers swipe their credit cards at the merchant’s location. The technology also captures the transaction data needed for BuyWithMe to provide merchants with clear, accurate and quantifiable analytics detailing the return on their investment from both their daily deals and ongoing loyalty and rewards programs while also identifying new types of deals and offerings that might be suitable for that merchant and their consumers.
“Our platform is integrated with payment processors around the country, allowing for automatic processing of deals, loyalty and rewards incentives based on specific shopping behavior,” said Bjorn Larsen, founder and former President of Edhance, Inc., now VP of Loyalty and Card-Linked Offers at BuyWithMe. “Combining Edhance’s technology with BuyWithMe creates a unique and extremely powerful platform that benefits both merchants and consumers.”
The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
About BuyWithMe BuyWithMe (www.BuyWithMe.com) launched in May 2009 and is the premiere group buying and social commerce company that allows consumers to discover and experience the best offerings from businesses in their city. BuyWithMe currently operates in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, Phoenix, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Washington D.C.
About Edhance Edhance was founded in 2009 in Cambridge, MA as a loyalty and rewards program for college students. Through proprietary software and relationships with payment processors, the company has developed a seamless card-linked offer platform enabling merchants to automatically process deals to consumers based on specific shopping behavior. The company is PCI Level 1 compliant as a service provider.
For more information on BuyWithMe visit www.BuyWithMe.com. To learn about boosting your business with BuyWithMe, go to www.buywithme.com/boostyourbusiness.
And consumers who want to learn about the best offers in their city, visit www.BuyWithMe.com.