Ghost Pepper? Has Pepper, the discount gift card app, burned out?

Usually, I’d wait until after a fintech has officially died before using its silly name against it. But, I couldn’t wait. Each day, it seems as though Pepper posts what some would consider useless deals. It’s making some wonder if the app has finally died. The deals have certainly fizzled. Some suggested that the once-sizzling deals caused Pepper to burn through their seed money. Perhaps Pepper’s deals were too hot and they had to cool things down.

Some customers have even reported being ghosted by Pepper. I, for one, am still waiting on a response after more than 2 weeks.

The app has even scaled back its new customer offer. New customers used to receive double points for the first two weeks. Now, new customers will receive $20 after spending $200. 

Pepper’s also expiring points for users who don’t make a purchase every 60 days.

With all of these developments (the latter being the most worrisome), it’s no wonder some believe that the app won’t be around for much longer.

Someone familiar with the industry suggested that the lower discounts may come down to the actual companies/merchants not wanting their gift cards being bought up by resellers. The problem is that the resellers buy the gift cards, and in turn, buy items from the merchant (even worse, at a discount), and then resell the merchandise. This doesn’t benefit the merchants, who ultimately want to offer gift cards to customers to entice them into the store and turn them into repeat customers.

Even so, Pepper isn’t doing itself any favors with the actual discounts that they’re providing customers. For one offer, Pepper’s discount is half of the amount that at least four other companies are offering for the same gift card.

Pepper will definitely need to step it to to remain competitive and relevant. As they say, if you can’t stand the heat…