Beyond French fries: FairMarket and eBay team up on loyalty programs

The success of the Burger King eBay-based loyalty program was just the start. Woburn, MA-based FairMarket Inc., which provides systems that manage items sold at auction and which is the operating system behind the Burger King program, has signed an exclusive agreement with eBay to run loyalty marketing programs for third parties.

The Burger King loyalty program has been successful enough that the company is expanding from test markets (InternetRetailer.com, 3/28). Burger King customers earn loyalty points for purchases then redeem them at auction on eBay.

EBay will lead the sales and marketing efforts. "Loyalty programs are a very powerful way for major consumer brands to interact with eBayıs community of 46 million registered users," Bill Cobb, senior vice president for global marketing at eBay, said. "Teaming up with FairMarket enables us to extend this unique capability to a wide range of companies looking to develop and reward customer loyalty."