Dive Brief:

• A new app called Dosh promises to overcome the annoyances of coupons by giving consumers cash back directly into their accounts upon making purchases at partner hotels, restaurants, retailers, amusement parks and more, according to a report in Women’s Wear Daily. The app launches on April 25 and over 100,000 businesses, including Sheraton, Avis, Forever 21, Macy’s, Wendy’s, Brookstone, Barnes & Noble, The Ritz-Carlton, Target, Neiman Marcus and The Home Depot, have already signed on to dish out rewards. 
• Dosh is free to download and requires users to upload their credit or debit card information to operate. Per a description of the app on chairman and cofounder Ryan Wuerch’s LinkedIn page, Dosh is integrated with the networks of American Express, Visa and Mastercard to assess transactions, and match them with available offers and coupons at its partner businesses. Dosh generates revenues by taking a percentage of each transaction. 
• Wuerch told WWD that Dosh is planning to dive into the consumer packaged goods segment soon and is anticipating expanding beyond the U.S. borders. He mentioned Dosh’s infrastructure was designed for the global market. 

Dive Insight:

Dosh is making its debut as retailers are struggling. Store closures are on pace to break a record this year, and the retail industry could be careening over a tipping point that it’s unlikely to rebound from. The industry could be undergoing a permanent restructuring as e-commerce continues to rise and eliminates the need for the surfeit of malls and shops that has been littering the U.S. retail landscape. With desperate retailers seeking digital answers to their difficulties, Dosh seems to be arriving at a good time to strike partnerships. It also appears to have done the legwork for potential partners by linking with credit card companies, giving them little reason not to try Dosh.

There have been a number of other cash-back apps, Ibotta is one of the most well-known, but Dosh is noteworthy for the number of partners it has at launch as well as the fact that a co-founder is former Stella & Dot CEO Mike Lohner. 

In the WWD article introducing Dosh, Wuerch made the case for Dosh as a productive marketing platform. Referring to the app’s partner businesses, he said, “We’re enabling them throughout the platform itself to incentivize, basically taking a shift on how advertising’s been used before.” Certainly, retailers’ efforts at marketing via their own apps haven’t been too effective. A survey by inMarket showed a measly 8% of smartphone owners use retailers’ apps. Dosh could be a more compelling trigger for app usage by being a hub for an array of businesses across several sectors and doling out rewards. Should Dosh amass a user base of decent size, it’s easy to envision location-based marketing initiatives tapping Dosh or various deals being tested through the platform.