An Erie company that allows shoppers to save money without clipping coupons is getting noticed across the country.
With M-Dot Network’s technology, stores can offer customers the chance to save on their purchases without paper coupons. The platform works because M-Dot’s software is built into the same computer systems that retailers use to process transactions and keep track of coupons. Shoppers who sign up with a store’s loyalty program can use their computers or cell phones to find and save coupons, and these choices are logged with the shopper’s account. When customers are standing in the checkout line, they punch their phone numbers into the cashier’s keypad and the coupons are automatically counted toward each purchase.
In November Hiller’s Markets, a grocery store chain in Michigan, became the first retailer to use M-Dot’s platform.
Then in December, M-Dot representatives won the Amazon Web Services Start-Up Challenge. More than 1,500 companies entered the competition, which was open to startups that use Amazon’s cloud computing services.
M-Dot’s prize was $50,000 cash and $50,000 in Amazon service credits, which M-Dot COO Dan Bensur says is enough to cover a year’s use of Amazon’s system. The money will go toward product development.
Bensur says that this year M-Dot plans to add fraud detection to its coupon system. Its platform will also be opened up to developers who want to build smart phone applications to integrate the paperless coupons.
Source: Dan Bensur, M-Dot Network
Writer: Rebecca VanderMeulen