The power chain

What powers a card

Every card a member holds is powered by one of three product shapes. Two are real. The third is a frontend combination of the first two.

1. InComm offer

An InComm offer is a benefit contract that lives in InComm's system. We clip it onto an InComm card (an InComm customer). The member can then spend it across the OTC Network of retailers.

Walmart is part of the OTC Network only in two cases:

The offer is an inclusion offer, or
The offer is marked WM-Managed.

See Inclusion vs exclusion and The Walmart triangle for why.

2. Walmart offer

A Walmart offer carries a Walmart promo code. Walmart issues the card through our direct relationship. It works only at Walmart.

3. Either/Or

Either/Or looks like a third thing. In reality it is a frontend combination of shapes 1 and 2. The member sees one offer with a choice:

Click Walmart and receive a Walmart card, or
Click an OTC retailer and receive an InComm card.

⚠️

The choice is irreversible for that card.

Once the member picks a side, the platform issues that card and only that card, and there is no switch-back for as long as that card lives. On a recurring benefit the choice comes back: each month's resend lets the member pick again.

We use Either/Or when we combine an exclusion InComm offer with Walmart coverage, and the exclusion offer is not WM-Managed. Exclusion offers cannot run at Walmart on their own, so the Walmart promo card fills the gap. The two sides always carry the same dollar amount; the member chooses where to spend it, not how much they get.

All three become products

An InComm offer, a Walmart offer, or an Either/Or all become products in the portal. Products power programs. Whatever sits under INCOMM OFFERS in the portal is what can become a product for the OTC Network.

Under the hood

The database has no separate "Walmart offer" table. The product row itself carries the shape:

Shape	What exists in the database
InComm offer	A row in `incommoffers`, plus a product with `CardIssuer = incomm` pointing at the offer number.
Walmart offer	Only a product with `CardIssuer = walmart` and a `PromoCode`. No offer row exists.
Either/Or	An advanced product with `ProductAdvanceType = either_or` whose children are the InComm product and the Walmart product. See Products & advanced products.