How Mastercard Leverages Data Analytics Solutions

In this world of rapid digital transformation, we’ve been witnessing platforms bringing forth data products in financial statement form and a range of such digital financial services, their relevance expanding by the second. We’ve got a wide set of platforms that have been embedding data analytics and AI-derived models into their products, with the aim of catering to both their external and internal customers.  

 

An excellent example of this becomes Mastercard. The platform’s Business Locator and Spending Pulse are powerful data products. From the point of its inception, Data analytics, in particular, has been at the core of Mastercard’s operations, especially in areas like disclosing fraud and getting customers and merchants in sync with each other. 

 

The platform has recently been under the limelight owing to it being barred by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from onboarding new customers on its network from 22 July 2021 onwards because of issues relating to noncompliance to payment data storage norms. 

 

Mastercard has also been gaining attention for its recent 7-year long agreement with LATAM Airlines Group for enhancing the travel experience for passengers worldwide.

 

In this blog, we will be demonstrating how Mastercard’s platform offers data analytics solutions and makes use of them. 

 

 

About Mastercard

 

Founding Year: 1966 - 1969 (Interbank)

1969 - 1979 (Master Charge)

1979 - Mastercard

 

Mastercard is a digital payments platform established in the field of global payments. It connects consumers, financial institutions, businesses, governments, and merchants across the world, allowing them to execute their transactions through electronic payment forms rather than through the traditional forms of payment like checks or cash. 

 

Recommended blog - Data Science in Finance

 

The platform leverages technology and data-rich insights, with the ultimate goal of making electronic payments a convenient, safe, and efficient medium and also to make daily e-commerce transactions like traveling, operating a business, handling finances, an easier task for everyone. 

 

Which industry areas does Mastercard offer solutions in? 

 

There are primarily 6 industries that Mastercard offers solutions in. 

 

Consumer Packaged Goods

 

With the market dynamics regularly revolutionizing, retailers and consumer packaged goods platforms are required to share insights and collaborate over fresh ideas so as to not be left out of the loop. By unraveling a thorough insight of the customer and offering data information, predictive analytics, consulting services as well as software platforms, Mastercard allows the retailers and suppliers to be in sync to realize the potential full profit data-driven collaboration offers. 

 

CPG solutions mainly include - ShopperCentre 360, Test & Learn®, SpendingPulse™, Mastercard Advisors

 

Financial Institutions

 

There's no pause on the rapidly increasing level of competition and the changing preferences of the consumers and financial institutions such as retail banks that are required to constantly optimize and upgrade their platforms to not be left behind. Solutions offered by Mastercard Data & Services provide executives with the tools and analytics they need to be successful.

 

The solutions of the platform for this industry comprise of Test & Learn®, Advanced Investment Management (AIM), Mastercard Intelligence Center (MIC), Acquirer Intelligence Center (AIC), Loyalty Solutions, Mastercard Advisors, Mastercard Market Trends.

 

Restaurants

 

The software platforms, consulting services as well as predictive analytics offered by Mastercard allow restaurants to advance at a steady rate. By providing a thorough view of the spending behavior of the guests and offering services platforms for converting data insights into action effortlessly, Mastercard’s solutions empower restaurants with the required ingredients for boosting their operations, attracting new guests and growing loyalty, spending, and frequency of the guest. 

 

Through these solutions questions like how the appropriate delivery structure can be targeted to boost profits for every market, how other items have been influenced by the new menu launches and potential effects, which are the guest segments or regions where growth has most opportunities and which marketing strategies can be leveraged and what the digital ads sales impact is and how it can be boosted, can be resolved and answered. 

 

Recommended blog - B2B Marketing Strategies

 

Mastercard solutions in this field include - Test & Learn®, Menu Analyzer, SpendingPulse™, Loyalty Solutions

 

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Which industry areas does Mastercard offer solutions in?

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Retail

 

The solutions offered by Mastercard are not just restricted to cash register transactions. The platform's solutions allow retailers to gain new customers, improve customer loyalty and enhance operations. A comprehensive view of the shoppers is offered by the solutions and the insights gained are then translated into action.

 

The solutions offered by Mastercard in this industry include Test & Learn®, Market Basket Analyzer, ShopperCentre 360, Loyalty Solutions, SpendingPulse™

 

Telecom & Media

 

Data-rich acquisition and retention strategies are powered through predictive analytics, data platforms as well as consulting services by Mastercard. Telecom and media platforms across the world adopt Mastercard solutions for operations such as marketing, enhancing customer service, and optimizing pricing. 

 

What kind of promotions can attract additional subscribers, which segments retention campaigns need to be sent to and when,  and how sales are being influenced by digital advertising are some of the questions Mastercard’s platform helps to respond to. 

 

Telecom & Media solutions include Test & Learn®, Loyalty Solutions

 

Travel & Hospitality

 

Mastercard offers prominent travel and hospitality platforms with consulting services, insights on data as well as predictive analytics for driving profitable innovation and remaining ahead in the race. 

 

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Mastercard's solutions are leveraged worldwide by travel and hospitality organizations for disclosing a thorough view of their customers and use the derived insights to undertake the required actions that drive operational efficiencies, enhance the customer experience and help in reaching the ultimate goal.

 

Travel & Hospitality products consist of Test & Learn®, SpendingPulse™, Portfolio Intelligence, Mastercard Advisor and Loyalty Solutions. 

 

 

How Mastercard offers Data Analytics solutions

 

Amidst the COVID19 pandemic, Mastercard introduced an initiative called “Recovery Insights” for aiding governments and businesses in the recovery by adopting the data it gathers. 

 

The platform develops actionable insights via a range of software services and platforms. Mastercard’s real-time, anonymous transaction data becomes a lucrative resource to help B2C platforms in obtaining a comprehensive view regarding the behavior of varying consumer segments. It allows the consumers to undertake strategic innovation and gain useful insights by influential software platforms and lead to healthy consumer relations. 

 

The platform’s Data & Analytics approach comprises of : 

 

• Offering consumers across the industry with a personalized set of solutions for handling the organization’s pain points throughout the business. 

 

• Mobilizing anonymized and accumulated transaction data, analytics and expertise to develop global, actionable insights, allow intelligent decisions, and enable predictive capacities. 

 

• Giving priority to the importance of customers and the user experience by offering perks like customization, speed, easy use as well as convenience. 

 

Spending Pulse

 

Mastercard’s SpendingPulse is a data product that offers market intelligence on the basis of the buying behavior of the consumer. Forecasting the spending patterns of the customers and the interpretation derived from present market trends are some of the insights this solution offers. 

 

The SpendingPulse Next Generation platform allows organizations to undertake real-time envisioning of consumer spending platforms, driving the decisions thoroughly across applications through comprehensive historical insights and forecast of sales. 

 

The platform is presently accessible across ten sectors that include Total Retail and Lodging. It demonstrates spend analysis at both the DMA and the county level and also allows in-store and online spending to be compared. 

 

The product can be adopted for contextualizing performance across key industry sectors, capitalizing on the channel shifts in the spending of customers, and working on the varying consumer buying trends at inferior geographic levels.

 

Test & Learn

 

Test & Learn is an application that deciphers the actual impact of a program and then suggests the most fruitful future course of action. The application’s features range from : 

 

• Decision Making

Alongside providing lucrative insights, the platform also influences decisions. The software detects the factors impacting the performance and suggests a proper action plan to follow. This helps remove any doubts in the decision-making. 

 

• Business Focus

Test & Learn is a self-service analytics tool developed for business users. The tool’s software instructs analysts through direct questions. It also allows the settings to be updated via a single click, and the users can thoroughly explore the result while in motion. 

 

• Speed and Automation

The tool enables users to swiftly analyze massive sets of data, in the blink of an eye, accustoming itself to every category, metric, and location. The application also offers advanced predictive analytics tools to empower the users. 

 

• Targeted Action

We exist in a world where generalized programs, absent of personalization, may not work on all target audiences or customers. The tool determines which of the customers or locations might offer a profitable response for every initiative. 

 

Recommended blog - Hyper personalization

 

Mastercard Intelligence Center (MIC) 

 

Enabling intelligent customer engagement on the basis of an understanding of the business propelled by data is an integral part of the success of any business. 

 

As per the platform’s website, the Mastercard Intelligence Center (MIC) offers self-service and pre-determined analytics on portfolio performance across spending, fraud, authorization, and interchange in comparison to custom benchmarks for a comprehensive view of business performance and actionable insights.

 

The tool is a self-service analytics software platform offering financial institutions actionable insights on portfolio performance. By allowing real-time analysis of swiftly updated data, MIC offers banks the insights and interpretations integral for improved decision making. 

 

Business Locator

 

It is crucial for organizations, consumers, and the government to be able to determine which of the businesses are operating amidst a crisis and recovery or to confirm which stores and businesses are open for customers and if they accept contactless payments. This is carried out by Mastercard’s Business Locator, a service that is offered via the Shop Openings platform for consumers, a site developed and hosted by Sixth Sense, a data analysis platform. 

 

It also includes details on different kinds of merchants, from restaurants and grocery stores to apparel and dry cleaning/laundry services. The application is presently available in Canada, US. UK and Italy. 

 

Benefits of Business Locator:

 

1. Abides by high accuracy standards

 

The information of the merchants is purged and coupled with high-quality merchant datasets. The listings of the merchants are determined promptly whenever a Mastercard transaction takes place. 

 

 

2. Comprehends merchant landscape

 

It helps in comprehending how the merchant landscape is evolving and the kinds of payment activities supported by each location.

 

 

3. Unravels exclusive insights of merchants

 

Indicators like “Parent Brand'', ''Lat/Long”, 'Primary Sales Channel' and “Cash Back” are extracted through anonymized and accumulated information regarding transactions.

 

4. Provides flexible implementation

 

The tool enables the user to select the most suitable approach that can be implemented, such as a data license or API to suit their requirements. 

 

 

How Mastercard helps merchants through data analytics

 

Interestingly, a Forbes article explains how Mastercard aids merchants in understanding their customers better through the weapon that is data analytics. The platform can help retailers in detecting patterns in the purchases that occur within their stores. Holding a massive collection of anonymous data, Mastercard also grants retailers the capacity of discerning their customers, category, and neighborhood, beyond their own stores. 

 

Speaking of Retail, take a look at our blog on AI in Retail

 

On the basis of the accumulated data, Mastercard can help merchants in deciding on the most suitable time for opening their stores in the morning or the areas where they have the potential to succeed by identifying neighborhoods in which similar businesses are prospering. 

 

The platform has partnered with nonprofits and governments for making a note of the trickle-down impact created by socioeconomic effects, like how the standard of living in cities is shaped by local commerce. 

 

The more well placed the store, the better influence it can have on the prospering ability of a community. Such insights can help in guiding investment in aspects like public safety and urban planning. 

 

Mastercard’s platform has also made use of tools like predictive analytics for helping it in disaster relief endeavors, such as during the hurricanes of 2017, in Texas and Florida. It offered emergency service vehicles alongside real-time updates regarding which of the gas stations had low fuel.  

 

Alongside data analytics, AI is another area Mastercard has started successfully sinking its paws into. From starting out as a digital payments company, it will be interesting to observe how the platform further paves its way to strengthen its presence as a robust technology platform.