Cardtronics’ New Skyscraper ATMs Link a Mobile App With Merchant Rewards

Retail ATM network owner and operator Cardtronics Inc. is testing ATMs as tall as nine feet that offer discounts to consumers when they withdraw cash at stores with Cardtronics machines and then make a purchase using a smart-phone app to access the reward.

The ATMs and rewards are part of a new service called the “ALLTM Network” that Houston-based Cardtronics quietly began testing this summer at 17 Phoenix-area Fresh & Easy LLC convenience stores. ALLTM marries mobile apps with rewards for cash purchases, a concept usually associated with credit and debit card or mobile-wallet purchases.

“Part of our goal with this effort was a methodology for tying together cash access and digital access,” Tom Pierce, chief marketing officer at Cardtronics, tells Digital Transactions News. “This ALLTM capability takes that next step.”

Another novel feature of ALLTM is the hardware. The Fresh & Easy machines are NCR Corp. SelfServ 16 models, which are free-standing cash dispensers for indoor placement. On top is a 32-inch high-definition screen connected to the actual ATM by steel housing painted in bright greens and blues. The screen can be divided into three panes: the upper one, taking 40% of the space, promotes ALLTM; the middle one, using 20%, displays local weather data, and the lower pane displays specific merchant offers. The panes cycle every 12 seconds and can be united to display a single message.

Cardtronics plans to use other ATM models as the program expands. In any configuration, the machines will be topped with the ALLTM screen and tower above the store shelves. Some could be as high as eight or nine feet. “Our intent was to be able to create a screen that would be seen above the aisles … and really be eye-catching for the consumer when they come in the store,” says Pierce.

Here's how ALLTM works: The user screen on an ALLTM-configured cash dispenser functions as it would on any ATM, but when there is no card inserted it will display information about ALLTM and how it works. To use the service, the consumer must first download the ALLTM smart-phone app from Apple Inc.’s App Store for the iPhone or Google Inc.’s Google Play market for Android devices.

After withdrawing cash, the consumer’s ATM receipt will display a Quick Response (QR) code, which the consumer then photographs using the ALLTM app. The app includes a QR-code reader, and once the code’s picture is taken it will pull up the particular store’s digital coupons. Fresh & Easy currently is offering discounts on various private-label grocery, ready-to-eat, and household items. The consumer can select as many as she wants, or take an option for a discount on a basket of items, says Pierce. The selected digital coupons then display bar codes, which are scanned at the checkout counter to give the consumer immediate discounts.

“Overall the reception [to ALLTM] been really great,” says a spokesperson for Fresh & Easy. He declined to give usage figures but says the technology has worked well.

El Segundo, Calif.-based Fresh & Easy, which has 167 stores in California, Arizona, and Nevada, went through an ownership change last year that resulted in some store closures. “We’ve really spent the bulk of this year reinvigorating our brand and becoming a destination,” the spokesperson says. One part of that revitalization effort is the re-introduction of ATMs through a deal Cardtronics announced Oct. 8. The chain once had ATMs, but until the Cardtronics contract not for the past several years, the spokesperson says. The new machines also are part of Cardtronics’ Allpoint surcharge-free network.

For Cardtronics, which operates 111,150 ATMs in the U.S. and abroad, the point of ALLTM is to increase customer traffic and purchase volume at its retail partners. More store traffic often translates into more revenue-generating ATM transactions. In its most common revenue model, Cardtronics owns and operates the ATM and shares part of the machine’s profits with the partner merchant. “For the retailer, we’re hoping to drive additional spend in the store,” says Pierce. Consumers, he adds, “are getting the benefit of additional promotional offers.”

While Pierce says consumers can pay for ALLTM-discounted purchases with plastic, Cardtronics is hoping most will use the cash they just received from the ATM. Citing Federal Reserve data, Cardtronics says 40% of consumer transactions, the largest share of any payment form, still involve cash.

Cardtronics plans to expand ALLTM next year after more testing with different types of retailers, according to Pierce. The company also anticipates generating revenues from national consumer-products firms displaying their wares through ALLTM. In addition, Cardtronics is working to link the service to its partner banks, which put their brands on some of Cardtronics’ ATMs.