You don’t have to collect Pepsi bottle caps anymore, but now scanning them will get you some cash. In a novel approach to customer loyalty programs, Pepsico will partner with PayPal and give cash back for buying Frito-Lay snacks and Pepsi beverages.
Customers can use their smartphones to scan the products and can transfer a minimum of $2.00 in earned rewards to Venmo or PayPal accounts. I wonder if we can now scan all those old bottle caps we’ve been saving?
An Engadget article, excerpted below, discusses more on the topic:
Do you wish soft drink makers would stop using point systems for reward programs and simply give you cold, hard cash? You’re about to get your wish… in a manner of speaking. Pepsi is launching a PepCoin loyalty program that rewards you for buying both a single-serve beverage and a Frito-Lay snack by sending money to PayPal and Venmo accounts.
If you scan enough codes on bottles and bags, you’ll receive a little bit of cash. You’ll have to earn $2 before it goes to your account, but this is real spending money — you can use it to pay your share of last night’s pizza.
The beverage behemoth tells Engadget this is a permanent program. You won’t be under pressure to have soft drinks and chips at every given opportunity, even if there will undoubtedly be an incentive to pick them when you’re satisfying a craving at the convenience store.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Director, Merchant Services at Mercator Advisory Group