Three seats left to attend the Digiday Media Buying Summit:

Join us Oct. 15-17 in Phoenix to connect with top media buyers

SECURE YOUR SEAT

What to know about Prime Reload, Amazon’s latest rewards program

Amazon’s potential influence on the ad ecosystem reverberated across Dmexco.

Amazon introduced Prime Reload Tuesday, which rewards 2 percent of purchases back to Prime members who fund their Amazon balances with their debit cards.

Forget the rumors about Amazon potentially buying a bank. Amazon practically is a bank. To date it has a foot in payments, cash, small business lending, consumer credit and now it’s coming for debit card users.

It’s not necessarily positioning itself to replace the existing banks, said Brendan Miller, principal analyst at Forrester Research; it’s just another way for people to interact with their money at a time when consumers funds are becoming more and more dispersed. Too bad for banks, that means they’ll naturally be taking fewer and fewer deposits and eventually, engage less and less with their customers, who will be engaging more with service providers like Amazon.

“There was already a trend of bank card spend being consolidated inside apps and services, and we are seeing the downstream risk to banks who are aware of this trend but aren’t do anything to act on it,” said Cherian Abraham, senior business consultant at Experian.

Get the full breakdown on tearsheet.co

More in Marketing

Why advertisers are quietly returning to news-driven media channels

The era of avoiding controversy is over. Brands are returning to politicized platforms and news content, armed with better tech, tighter budgets, and a new understanding of what brand safety really means.

Advertising Week Briefing: Amazon is primed to take over the ad industry

Amazon’s ad dominance grows as its DSP swallows more of the open web.

How FanDuel’s Amazon Prime NBA sponsorship extends beyond the court logo

Fanduel is the first sponsor of Amazon Prime’s NBA coverage. Its innovative approach could set the pace for future partnerships.