While Visa itself does not offer cards or financial services directly to consumers and merchants, it plays a key role in advancing new payment products and technologies on behalf of its member financial institutions.
CHallenge: growing competition on the internet and changing market forces
Members of Visa USA (Bank of America, Wells Fargo, First USA, etc.) were steadily losing ownership of a highly sought after customer group: small businesses. For years, small businesses had looked to their banks for everything from loans and credit to complex business assistance with problems such as cash flow management and international expansion. With the emergence of the Internet, however, Visa member banks (large and small) were being appropriated by traditional and non-traditional players.
Solution: A "Destination" Website offering innovative business solutions
Working with Visa senior management, Digital Foundry crafted a comprehensive strategy to enhance the company’s value proposition to small businesses. To accomplish this objective, Digital Foundry conceptualized a site where small businesses would start and finish their day, a “destination” rather than just a portal. The site would provide small business owners and employees all the tools necessary to run a business on a day-to-day basis.
Digital Foundry consulting leaders pushed Visa to think beyond the scope of their competitors’ offerings to develop a site that was clearly different and more relevant than anything else on the Web.