Visa Offers Network

Visa Offers Network (VON) is a marketplace for publishers to distribute affiliate and card-linked offers to their audiences to drive spend and engagement.

VON capabilities are delivered through multiple Application Programming Interface (API) services, each with a distinct responsibility in the end-to-end lifecycle. VON APIs enable clients to efficiently retrieve offers, receive notifications related to cardholder transactions, and capture valuable data analytics. These APIs streamline the process of retrieving offers and coupons and monitoring transaction activity in real time.

VON is available to clients in all regions. A VON client may be an issuer, a non-issuer such as a third-party loyalty program provider, or a merchant with whom Visa has a direct commercial relationship.

For details on implementation, contact your Visa Implementation Manager. The Visa Implementation Manager is assigned by the Visa Customer Service Representative and can also provide guidance on the correct use of the APIs based on your specific use case.

Visa Offers Network (VON) delivers a range of valuable features for clients seeking to maximize their customers' engagement through cashback and savings.

• Access to curated offers from merchants at local, regional, and global levels through a centralized global catalog.
• Automated offer qualification and fulfillment, making it easier to redeem rewards.
• Support for affiliate offers, allowing cash back to be automatically tracked and applied when customers make qualifying purchases through designated merchant links.
• Support for convenient copying and application of coupon codes for instant discounts.
• Support for statement credits in multiple currencies.
• Opportunities for personalized customer engagement through curated offers based on spending patterns and merchant signals.

Publishers and approved distribution partners retrieve personalized offers from Visa Offers Network (VON) through Visa-provided retrieval and eligibility APIs that return offers ranked and filtered by VON's personalization services.

After offers are ingested and published to VON, VON applies Visa-modeled personalization, eligibility rules, and audience segmentation to determine which offers are relevant for a given user or context.

This diagram illustrates the high-level VON process flow.

The Visa Offers Network (VON) offer lifecycle encompasses the complete journey from distributor and publisher (issuer and non-issuer) onboarding through consumer enrollment, offer interaction, and payout fulfillment.

1. Distributor or Issuer Onboarding – The issuer or distributor is configured within VON. This includes configuration of the necessary tenant information, fulfillment channels, and notification endpoints to ensure seamless communication and transaction processing.
2. Distributor or Issuer Configuration – During onboarding, issuers or distributors select offer types such as CLO (online or in-store) or affiliate. They can access only the offers allowed by association rules and may update their selection at any time.
3. Offer Distribution – Offers are made available to consumers through APIs and Visa-provided consumer channels such as the Visa Digital Enablement (VDE) Software Development Kit (SDK). By default, VON offers are personalized, but issuers and distributors can opt for generic offers.
4. Consumer Enrollment – Cardholders express interest and opt in to the program. VON then registers the cardholder's Primary Account Number (PAN) and user context, establishing a linkage that enables the cardholder to interact with eligible offers.
5. Eligibility Assessment – Upon enrollment, VON validates the cardholder's status and returns a list of eligible offers. Each eligible offer is accompanied by a unique tracking identifier to ensure accurate monitoring throughout the offer lifecycle.
6. Offer Interaction and Purchase – Cardholders browse, interact with, and complete purchases with participating merchants, leveraging the available offers.
7. Ledger Event Recording – Every transaction and redemption event is documented and tracked, with each event moving through various lifecycle states to ensure accurate processing and auditing.
8. (Optional) Payout Notification – VON sends various statuses related to the cashback amount to issuers and distributors, which they can use to notify their users in real time.
9. (Optional) Statement Credit – If the issuer or distributor wants VON to issue the payout as a statement credit, VON calculates the appropriate reward and initiates the fulfillment process for payouts.

When a cardholder requests offers through the issuer application, Visa Offers Network (VON) returns a curated set of eligible and personalized offers rather than a full catalog. These offers are tailored based on the cardholder’s spending behavior, merchant participation, and applicable offer rules.

This approach enables issuers to present relevant, card-linked or affiliate offers without having to manage merchant sourcing, personalization logic, or redemption tracking. VON remains the system of record for offer eligibility and redemption, allowing issuers to deliver personalized offer experiences with minimal operational overhead.

Publishers request available or eligible offers through VON's offer retrieval or eligibility endpoints. Instead of returning raw or unfiltered content, VON provides a curated set of offers based on merchant participation, offer rules, and personalization models.

This approach enables publishers to present tailored offers without managing merchant relationships, offer ranking, or personalization logic. VON remains the system of record for offer eligibility and redemption tracking.

Non-issuer publishers, such as third-party loyalty or engagement platforms approved to distribute Visa Offers Network (VON) content, retrieve personalized offers from VON using the same core offer-retrieval and eligibility services as issuers. However, these publishers operate in a platform or publisher context rather than a direct issuer-to-cardholder experience.

After offers are published to VON, Visa applies its personalization and eligibility models to determine which offers are suitable for distribution. This determination is based on supported identifiers, program configuration, and applicable offer rules.

Publishers receive a filtered and ranked set of offers that can be embedded into their own loyalty or engagement experiences, without owning card issuance or managing merchant relationships.

In this model, VON continues to manage offer governance, personalization, and redemption tracking as needed, while the non-issuer publisher focuses on presentation, engagement, and platform integration.

Working with the Visa Offers Network (VON) APIs allows you to integrate with VON to manage offer content, enroll consumers, retrieve eligible offers, track engagement or redemption outcomes, and leverage advanced personalization capabilities through several endpoints.

VON consists of these bundled API services, with each service having a distinct responsibility in the end-to-end lifecycle:

• Consumer Enrollment – Enroll and manage consumers and their Primary Account Numbers (PANs) for offers participation with support for standard and generic payload formats.
• Eligibility – Determine user eligibility, retrieve eligible offers, access user segmentation data, and obtain merchant ranking insights for personalization.
• Ledger – Record offer, transaction, and statement credit events with comprehensive event tracking and generic payload support.
• Offers – Manage merchant offers through extensive Create, Read, Update, and Delete (CRUD) operations, merchant-specific management, and generic transformation capabilities.
• Payout – Submit commission or reward payout details to VON with support for both structured and generic payload formats.

The API provides both standard endpoints with structured schemas and generic transform endpoints that accept flexible payload structures, enabling integration with diverse data formats through Visa-configured mapping.

The Visa Offers Network (VON) APIs are designed for publishers such as financial institutions, distributors, and developers who want to integrate comprehensive card-linked and affiliate offer management capabilities into their applications. Large merchants and content providers can also use the APIs for creating and updating offers.

The two primary audience types are:

• Content providers – Create offers by using the APIs. This audience includes aggregators and large merchants.
• Content consumers – Retrieve offers by calling the VON getOffers and related APIs. This audience includes issuers and distributors.

The target audience must have:

• Experience with RESTful API integration and JSON data handling.
• Understanding of header-based authentication mechanisms and client ID management.
• Knowledge of Primary Account Number (PAN).
• Familiarity with financial services compliance and security requirements.
• Understanding of the payment card industry standards and data protection practices.
• Experience with event-driven architecture and analytics implementation.
• Knowledge of affiliate marketing and cash back reward programs.
• Experience integrating with financial service APIs or payment platforms.