Evan Schuman's StorefrontBacktalk

To accomplish that, RetailMeNot will sharply limit the types of coupons that can be used, at least initially, to things like 20 percent off anything purchased from a specific retailer or free shipping. What would not initially work would be coupons that, for example, require buying three of a specific product from among certain flavors.

That would be problematic, because all First Data now knows from a purchase is the total amount due. By the summer of 2013, though, First Data expects to be able to do much more: At that point, it will have details transmitted of every SKU purchased right along with the price and the card data, First Data’s Owen said.

To get to that stage of detailed, item-level basket information transmissions, Owen said, will require upgrades from various POS manufacturers. “That’s the next level of engagement with the consumer,” she said. “If you get the data, it’s pretty easy to see what is in that data. But we need to do updates to how we capture that information, changes to the ecosystem.”

If this trial, slated for early next year, works it has impressive potential. The program will use a customer identifier number, in addition to the payment-card data, so if the card has to be changed that can happen easily and without threatening any associated coupons or other purchase history data.

If the consumer uses that card consistently, could the processor award CRM points to various retailers? If someone gifts money to a shopper, it would automatically reduce the next purchase by that amount. That could be a nice surprise.

Speaking of surprises, there’s also a security fraud risk. With no physical—or even phone-displayed—coupon, associates need to trust that the reduced amount is correct. If the system is hacked the store would have almost no way to detect any irregularity until days, if not weeks, later—when things don’t balance.

This requires the integrity of both connections—from RetailMeNot to First Data and from First Data back to the retailer—be sacrosanct. If a thief can fake either connection, there’s an apparent absence of checks and balances in the store. But that’s what a trial is all about.

The idea of moving the coordination of data types away from the phone to some version of the cloud—we still love Burger King’s mobile payment approach, which married QR codes and the cloud—has more potential than almost anything being discussed today. If the SKU-level details are indeed integrated by next summer, that just might be the ballgame.