Bank of America, Get Me a Webkinz!

Bank of America Corp. has become a retailer. Well, sort of.

The bank has launched a marketing effort this month for its Bank of America Mall, which allows the bank’s customers to earn cash back and discounts when they shop with their Bank of America check or credit card through the mall’s website. It appears as though the Bank of America Mall has been around since the summer. For the mall, BofA has partnerships with Target, Toys R’ Us and Kmart, among many others.

THE MALL OF (BANK OF) AMERICA

While a quick check on the traffic of the BofA Mall seems to indicate that few people are visiting, I find the whole idea of more closely linking the payment mechanism to the product intriguing. Indeed, that’s how Bank of America is selling the service. Here’s the email marketing piece I got yesterday:

I expect more efforts to inject the payment mechanism into the shopping process. If I want a Webkinz for my daughter — she must have a thousand — Bank of America can help. That’s an argument that makes sense and could keep BofA at the front of the wallet for many consumers.