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Mastercard (MA) Ties Up to Ease Cardholders' Daily Expenses

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Mastercard Incorporated (MA - Free Report) recently unveiled two new partnerships with DoorDash (DASH - Free Report) and HelloFresh as well as extended its ties with Fandango, Lyft (LYFT - Free Report) and ShopRunner. The latest move is intended to offer enhanced digital offerings to Mastercard’s World and World Elite consumer credit cardholders. Shares of Mastercard gained 1.4% in the last two days’ trading.

Following these collaborations, the cardholders of the company will be able to collect rewards while making daily purchases from Apr 1. Concurrent with the rewards, the cardholders will possess the advantage of Mastercard ID Theft Protection and a group of identity theft resolution specialists for addressing identity theft incidents of cardholders.

The tie-ups with DoorDash and HelloFresh are likely to provide consumers with on-demand delivery services encompassing local restaurant meals, household grocery and convenience items, and fresh meal kit delivery. Meanwhile, the extended partnership with Fandango will generate rewards for World Elite cardholders for expenses incurred on digital movie rentals and movie ticket purchases. The collaboration with Lyft is likely to generate savings for World and World Elite cardholders while travelling. The deal with ShopRunner will empower the same cardholders with free shopping and returns.

The company also announced that Instacart customers who do not yet have Instacart Express membership will be entitled to enjoy two free months of such membership through September 2021. Customers can avail the benefit by subscribing to an Instacart Express annual membership with an eligible Mastercard card being set as the default payment method for signing up for the yearly membership.

Shares of this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) company have gained 42.2% over a year compared with the industry’s growth of 30.6%. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

The recent initiatives highlight Mastercard’s efforts to offer consumers with enhanced digital shopping options amid the COVID-19 pandemic. These offerings seem to be the need of the hour as consumer spending habits have significantly evolved with imposition of stringent lockdowns and fears of contracting the COVID-19 virus. Consumers, who became averse to physical visit to stores, inclined toward online shopping. As a result, there has been a notable surge in online shopping worldwide following the coronavirus outbreak with the United States being no exception to the trend.

Meanwhile, the fact has been further substantiated by Mastercard Spending Pulse, per which U.S. online sales soared 54.7% this February compared to the 2020 figure. Also, media and research firm Digital Commerce 360 stated that the notable spike in online sales resulted in $861.1 billion being generated in e-commerce sales last year across the United States. However, if the pandemic induced online sales surge didn’t happen, the e-commerce sales figure of 2020 would not have attained this level until 2022.

Furthermore, Mastercard has been partnering with several organizations and rolling out cost-effective solutions for tapping the current prospects in the global digital payments space. With consumer shift toward digital options likely to sustain even beyond the pandemic, Mastercard continues to capitalize on the prevailing scenario by enhancing its capabilities and foraying further into the underserved areas through technological offerings.

Another company in the same space, Visa Inc. (V - Free Report) has also aided businesses, governments and financial institutions to make faster secured digital payments utilizing Visa Direct’s real-time payment capabilities.

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