Case Study
Transforming Payment: Tandym's Strategic Use of Rutter to Provide Merchant-First Credit Cards and Personalized Customer Experiences
The retail industry has long recognized the benefits of private-label credit cards. These financial tools empower businesses to offer attractive customer incentives, strengthening brand loyalty and elevating customer lifetime value. Harnessing this potential, Tandym is reimagining the payments ecosystem for SMBs overlooked by traditional banking structures. With a merchant-first approach, Tandym provides SMBs with the tools to offer their own branded credit and debit card products, helping them save on payment processing costs and use consumer purchase data to curate bespoke customer rewards.
Tandym's innovative platform springs from the minds of a team with nearly 40 years of fintech experience, spanning consumer lending, card lending, and auto finance. The company's roots trace back to the team's time at Capital One, where they refined private label and co-branded products.
We had the opportunity to sit down with David Anderson, co-founder and Chief Product Officer of Tandym, to delve into his early strategic product development decisions.
IMPACT SUMMARY
Leading commerce coverage
The velocity of shipping new platforms
Customer-centric agility
The Problem
The Power of Integration
David recognized the critical importance of commerce integrations to their product in the early days. By unlocking access to customer purchase data on e-commerce platforms such as Shopify, Magento, and WooCommerce, they equipped merchants using Tandym with the insights necessary to tailor the customer experience optimally.
Data on customer order histories, purchase frequency, and product preferences empower Tandym's merchants to craft targeted marketing messages, driving conversion rates and enhancing the customer journey.
The Solution
The 'Buy vs Build' Dilemma
As a startup, Tandym had to balance numerous priorities. David explained how strategic resource allocation led them to prefer investing in their core product development over building individual integrations for various e-commerce platforms.
Tandym envisages a future where additional coverage through a universal API enables them to extend their customer reach.
Tandym's agility as a startup is one of its greatest assets. Engaging Rutter for customer integration needs was a strategic move that fast-tracked Tandym's market entry.
Investing in Rutter wasn't just about saving time. It was about avoiding missed opportunities. If we had tried to build it ourselves, we wouldn't have prioritized it as it wouldn't have been critical enough to our core product to justify the time investment.
The Impact
Rutter's commerce-first approach and robust e-commerce platform coverage stood out.
Rutter's API included 10 e-commerce platforms at the time of the partnership. Since then, they've added 30+ platforms in under a year, validating Tandym's conviction in Rutter's delivery speed.
Rutter's responsive engineering and support teams worked closely with Tandym to address any blockers and facilitate a seamless onboarding process.
The Future
Looking Ahead: Leveraging Unique Data for SMB Lending and Personalized Product Offerings
With Rutter unlocking access to a wealth of commerce endpoint data, Tandym is set to redefine the future of merchant-first card offerings.
Tandym's future plans include launching a lending product for merchants, with this unique data informing their underwriting models.
Merchant data is a unique resource we're excited to integrate. It's truly orthogonal and allows us to make smarter decisions. Traditional credit bureaus like Equifax or Transunion can't provide these insights.
