Flow Looks to Take on Big Names in Mobile Payments with Social Networking Marketplace
Mobile and digital finance has made huge strides in innovation over the past few years. Between mobile wallets, banking apps, loyalty rewards management, and payments, it seems there’s very little you can’t do on your phone these days. Except, maybe, being able to handle all of these functions within the same app.
This is where Flow comes in. For those who haven’t yet heard of Flow, Payment Week sat down with their CEO for a quick interview.
As far as to just what exactly Flow is, the company CEO, Amy ter Haar, describes it as, “a social networking platform that enables buyers and sellers to find one another, make transactions happen, and be rewarded for doing so.”
Users on Flow’s network will be able to utilize a contextual and keyword based search algorithm that, according to ter Haar, will significantly improve the online shopping experience. After purchasing an item trough Flow, users earn rewards based on merchant offerings, and are incentivized to review products from merchants with more rewards.
Rewards are a huge aspect of Flow’s network. As ter Haar puts it, “One of our most exciting features is that we’re offering an unrestricted, unlimited rewards program. For the very first time, users will be able to transact in cash online, and earn rewards for each and every purchase. So they’re able to earn Flow rewards in one place, and spend them with any other merchant in the Flow network on a dollar for dollar basis.”
Merchants on the network decide how much they’re willing to offer in rewards, and utilizing the social aspect of the network, can offer more rewards for purchases converted through user reviews.
Since it’s based on cash, Flow works similarly to a prepaid card, though with significantly cheaper fees, and users are free to handle their cash and rewards however they’d like through separate Flow savings and checking accounts.
While Flow still hasn’t launched, ter Haar says they should be up and running on Android phones in Canada within the quarter following the signing-on of their first partner, and plans to move onto iOS and into the US soon after.
Though they’re just starting out, Flow plans on taking on some of the biggest names in digital commerce, like Amazon and eBay. According to Amy, “Our vision is no less expansive, though we have a lot to do and a long way to go to get to that point.”
Amy ter Haar, CEO of Flow, Inc., is a legal and business advisor with experience in multiple sectors including IT (research, design and development), financial services, e-commerce, entertainment, manufacturing, and retail. Amy founded the Personal Data Protection Initiative, and actively lectures on Privacy, Secrecy and Censorship. Amy can be reached at [email protected].