• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, July 18, 2023

SKUx, a payments and consumer engagement platform founded in 2018, plans to announce a partnership with Emplifi that will make it easy to send a one-to-one serialized, encoded and trackable digital payment to consumers. The instantaneous payments might include product refunds or rewards.

“It speeds up the process to get the refund to the consumer,” said Bryson Hale, vice president of marketing at SKUx. “It takes an average of 27 seconds. The conversion rate after the consumer receives the refund is about 90%.”

The numbers come from an unnamed Northeastern beer company that piloted the technology after having to refund multiple purchases for one reason or another. Issues experiences with refunding purchases included uncashed checks sitting in limbo until they expired, and fraud.  

Through the digital payment process, consumer receive a redemption link to receive a payment sent through almost any digital channel, including email, SMS, social media, direct message or chat via the Emplifi agent. It’s like a virtual debit card that can be used where any tap-to-pay is accepted.

The new capability supported on the Emplifi Service Cloud customer engagement platform aims to change payment systems, improve customer experiences, and reduce costly logistical fulfillment processes.

The support spans the entire customer lifecycle, from driving new customer acquisition and keeping customers happy when issues arise, to helping brands re-engage with customers by driving ecommerce and in-store traffic. He says it also improves brand loyalty.

Merchants can also restrict where the consumer can use the funds. They also can access ongoing program data on claims and user engagement. It creates a digital trail easier than paper to track and manage, resulting in better budget control and fraud detection.