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OUTSOURCING PRIVATE-LABEL CARDS

Orchard Supply Hardware (OSH), the San Jose-Calif.-based home-improvement retailer with 85 locations throughout California, has signed two six-year agreements with Alliance Data Systems, Dallas, to provide private-label credit-card services to both its consumer and commercial businesses, including account acquisition and activation, receivables funding, card authorization, card issuance, statement generation, marketing services, remittance processing and customer-service functions. The credit-card services will be integrated with marketing solutions to leverage insights into OSH customers derived from transaction data, enabling OSH to gain a deeper understanding of its customers.… Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based Bragada, an online and telecommunications retailer of luxury bedding, selected Shoppers Charge Accounts, adivision of TD Bank-north, Portland, Maine, to develop and administer its private-label credit-card program. The new program will entitle Bragada cardholders to special privileges including “same-as-cash” financing options.

LOYALTY-CARD MARKETING

HSBC-North America, Prospect Heights, Ill., is offering retailers a combination loyalty rewards and PIN-based dual payment card solution created through a strategic alliance with Concept Shopping, amarketing firm based in Lisle, Ill. HSBC anticipates retailers will begin offering the new program, which is designed to enhance customer loyalty and increase sales, within the next six months. Retailers that utilize this new payment platform will be able to issue rewards, based on personal purchase history, to card-holders as they enter the store. Additionally, the new loyalty rewards PIN-payment program allows retailers to process card transactions at a lower cost and reward their customers with an affinity-based payment solution.