Tim Ermlich

AtHomeActivation (AHA) is an initiative launched in collaboration with the largest grocer in the USA. When pandemic hit and groceries went to curbside pickup, we ideated on how gift cards could be securely conveyed for curbside. We started from a blank virtual whiteboard, did zoom in-store discovery on processes, and devised a means to launch a pilot product in eight weeks. We then took an additional eight weeks of observation and enhancement to roll out user refinements and launch to all remaining stores.

Leveraged the existing white label relationship to provide a platform to support a frictionless, highly secure payment option for the purpose of texting a gift card. We conducted extensive integration work with touchpoints of the customer, Apple, payment gateway, acquiring bank, credit card networks, and card-issuing banks to ensure transactions succeeded across multiple currencies like USD, CAD, and GBP. This includes API support for functionality, including payment processing, gift card value addition, and real-time fraud risk assessment.

Working with retailer and integration partners for payment and financial instrument processing, the product feature concept was developed and coincided with the launch of that grocer on the platform, supporting 3,000+ B2B clients of the grocer. Functionality allowed for several mechanisms (CSV, XSLX, and XML) to upload card data such as holder, card identifiers, balance, and thresholds and details of the value being added (currency and amount) to add value to cards, create orders that can be managed and approved in the portal, and process invoice and payment.

Through multiple iterative versions, we went from single-partner "campaign” pages to a highly scalable offer wall that aggregated revenue-generating affiliate partners and integrated multiple back-end platforms to facilitate broad partner coverage.

An initial MVP launch used sweepstakes entries awarded for user actions. This included operational support to award entries to sweepstakes, randomly select winners each week, and integration with a 3rd-party provider to convey funds to the winner.

Subsequent iterations introduced cash incentives as a driver for users to take actions with partners as well as refer friends. As part of the launch strategy, anticipating a high likelihood of fraudulent users seeking cash payouts, multiple vendors, costs, and capabilities were assessed. We implemented an N-step, layered fraud risk prevention ecosystem that leveraged API interactions with the selected vendor to assess device fingerprint, email, phone validation, geo-location, and recognition of several other lower-level characteristics indicating a high likelihood of fraud.