Status: Very early thinking!

Ideas for determining whether there are W3C standardization opportunities around digital coupons and loyalty programs. See Ian Jacobs presentation from early 2016 to the Web Payments IG. Questions? <ij@w3.org>.

Motivation

• Although most coupons are still paper-based, mobile coupon redemption rate is 10 times better than paper.
• There are many benefits to making it easier to distribute and redeem digital: custom offers, analytics, lower distribution costs, in place offer-updates, etc.
  • From GSMA: "[A]ccording to Statista ... in 2014 more than 16 billion digital coupons were redeemed, which is expected to grow to 31 billion in 2019. Inmar’s 2014 Coupon Trends Report, also revealed that in 2013, the number of digital coupons redeemed, grew by 141 per cent in the U.S. alone."
• There are also many current challenges, including fragmented markets and lack of smooth integration of coupons and loyalty into the checkout experience for users.

Goals

• Determine whether there is a standardization opportunity for W3C around digital coupons and loyalty programs.
  • Candidate: Make it easier and more secure for users to redeem coupons or apply loyalty points during checkout (by enhancing the work being done in the Web Payments Working Group).
• If so, create a plan for incubating technology with the goal that it would ultimately advance to the W3C Recommendation Track.
• Lower the barriers to participation in early discussions of the work.

Timeline

• May 2016: Launch Coupons and Loyalty CG to start discussions
  • Draft CG Charter?
• Oct 2016: Coupons and Loyalty Workshop. A purpose of this workshop is to accelerate the work and expose it to more stakeholders in a face-to-face setting.
• Feb/Mar 2017: Launch Coupons and Loyalty WG

Non-Goals

• Standardization of identifiers for coupons.

Deliverables

• 1-pager explaining what we want to accomplish