US coin-counting kiosk operator Coinstar is promoting its
prepaid card distribution services to US retailers by offering a
‘turnkey’ package including staff training, merchandising and POS
systems integration. Its message is that retailers can use prepaid
to improve profits in a difficult economic climate.
Coinstar entered the prepaid card market in 2004 through its
Coinstar E-Payment Services subsidiary. It competes with market
leader Safeway’s prepaid card distributor Blackhawk Network.
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“While Coinstar has to work hard to catch up with Blackhawk,
which has its cards in all Safeway stores, its coin-counting kiosks
give it a competitive advantage,” US payment research consultancy
TowerGroup analyst Brian Riley said. “These kiosks are installed in
a lot of stores.”
Coinstar’s primary prepaid market is convenience stores, but it
also works with drugstores such as Walgreens and supermarkets. It
offers retailers a choice of installing a stand-alone POS terminal
for selling prepaid; using their existing POS system with software
that integrates with the Coinstar platform; or self-service kiosks
that issue prepaid cards. As of 30 June 2008, Coinstar had 10,900
kiosks installed which are able to convert coin deposits to prepaid
cards, up from 8,900 a year earlier.
Mike Skinner, Coinstar E-Payment Services’ general manager, sees
prepaid cards as a high-margin, low-cost product that is easy to
sell.
“We tell retailers they need to become known as a destination
for prepaid, and this will bring customers to their stores and
improve their overall sales,” he said. “The way to do this is
through effective prepaid category management: getting the right
mix of products, matching the right products to the retailer’s
different customer segments, and exploiting seasonal
opportunities.”
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By GlobalDataAs part of its product category management service, Coinstar
handles sourcing.
“We put together the prepaid wireless cards from telcos such as
AT&T on behalf of the retailer, and we bring prepaid reloadable
debit cards from Green Dot and NetSpend as well as non-reloadable
gift cards,” Skinner said.
Coinstar finds out what types of customer visit the retailer’s
stores, then puts together an appropriate mix of products.
“We stock the products, supply the shelves and the displays, and
plan the layout of the prepaid cards in the display cabinets for
the best sales,” Skinner added.
Coinstar provides staff training in all the products it
distributes.
“To sell prepaid cards, you need to train the staff, and this
will be even more important with the growth of financial services
in convenience stores such as money transfers and bill payments,”
Skinner said.
Coinstar, which since 2006 has bought two remittance firms,
GroupEx Financial and Travelex Money Transfer, is developing a
money transfer product specifically for convenience stores.
Skinner cited recent promotions as evidence that Coinstar’s
strategy pays off. For its promotions, Coinstar supplies all the
display material at no cost to the retailer.
For Father’s Day 2008, Coinstar ran a promotion for the Bass Pro
fisherman gift card. Anyone who bought a Bass Pro card during the
promotion was given a free tackle box. Skinner says total Bass Pro
card transactions rose by 27 percent, and also helped to improve
overall gift card sales at the 2,000 retailers which took part.
Robin Arnfield
