Mastercard Rolls Out Recovery Insights for Small Businesses

In a bid to support small businesses, which are badly hit by a business loss from the plaguing coronavirus pandemic, Mastercard Inc. MA has announced its Recovery Insights program. This includes twin initiatives, namely the geographic expansion of ShopOpenings.com and a global project named Digital Acceleration for Small Business.

ShopOpenings.com, built in partnership with data analysis company Sixth Sense, is a new online search tool that confirms the reopening status of all those local shops and businesses that shuttered temporarily due to COVID-19. This search capability has been bought to the United States and Canada.

The search engine provides information on retailers of all kinds, ranging from restaurants to pharmacies, dry cleaners to boutiques. It also identifies merchants that accept contactless payments. Notably, shop owners do not need to register on the site to be visible. This facility available on the phone makes it convenient for consumers to get the required data on the go.

Significantly, the other program — Digital Acceleration for Small Business — is aimed at delivering insights and resources for those small business owners who are looking to expand their business digitally and build a strong online presence. The initiative is being rolled out first in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean region.

In the United States, Mastercard is providing this service under the name of Digital Doors in partnership with BigCommerce, Hello Alice and Shopify.

The company is also providing solutions like cybersecurity, standardized online checkout Click to Pay and a customized digital skills curriculum. In Latin America and across the Caribbean belt, the company launched the Digital Acceleration service with partners like Linio, INCAE, Leafgrow and Sheworks.

The Digital Acceleration program is intended to aid the shift of small businesses from a physical to digital mode, something which they lack in. Given the rise of e-commerce amid the COVID-19 outbreak, most small traders with no recourse to digital business tools are failing to capitalize on the growing ecommerce opportunity.

Per Mastercard, the Digital Acceleration is a way to provide small businesses a pathway to expand their online footprint, protect their cyber operations and succeed in the new-normal space.

Other companies in the same space, such as Visa Inc. V and American Express Co. AXP, also came forward to lend a cushion to small and medium businesses. Visa committed two programs totaling $210 million to back small and micro businesses and is also empowering digital-first business plans wherein it will be providing tools, partnership offers and guiding material on the ways to start, run and grow digital-first small businesses.

American Express pledges a $200-million incentive over the next several months to assist the small-time businessmen. Additionally, Mastercard recently promised a pandemic package worth $250 million to span over five years in the United States and other markets where the company operates.

Mastercard carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold), currently.The stock has gained 11.4% in the past three months compared with the industry’s growth of 11.7%.

You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

A better ranked stock in the same space is Equifax Inc. EFX. The stock surpassed estimates in the last reported quarter by 8.53%.

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