At this fall’s Motivation Show in Chicago, our Chief Operating Officer Sheree Stewart met with a reporter from Paybefore Magazine to talk about her outlook on industry trends, the economy and what’s next for InteliSpend. Excerpts from their question-and-answer session were published recently:
Paybefore: What trends are you seeing in the prepaid marketplace?
Stewart: The single most important market force in prepaid is the regulatory environment. It’s extremely dynamic, and there is constant pressure to respond. You need to really be watching it very closely and reacting appropriately, whether your business is incentives or any other prepaid vertical.
The other striking trend I’ve seen is the quick entry, and then exit, of prepaid industry players. Our industry is compelling because there is so much potential, but it can be difficult to find a niche. I think a lot of the smaller players who have come into the space in the last five years have thought it would be easy. But there is a level of complexity around prepaid, particularly because of the regulatory environment, that we all need to watch. And margins in prepaid tend to be skinnier than some other types of businesses, so that adds to the challenge.
Paybefore: How has the economy impacted InteliSpend?
Stewart: The ups and downs in the economy definitely impact those of us selling to corporations. When the economy is weaker, corporations scale back budgets for employee recognition and sales incentive-type programs. The amount of dollars being loaded onto prepaid cards per program is generally less than what you see when the economy is booming.
However, we see companies in the consumer promotion space trying to incent consumers to spend more of their dollars with them, which means there will be increased activity for consumer promotion incentive programs.
Paybefore: What can the industry look forward to from InteliSpend?
Stewart: As you know, we traditionally have been in the incentive space. But we will be looking at other markets that we’re interested in pursuing to help build out our corporate portfolio. We’re excited about branching out.
The complete Q&A article is available to Paybefore subscribers at their website. >> [http://paybefore.com/]