What Happened
National drugstore chain Rite Aid will start accepting both Apple Pay and Google Wallet this upcoming Saturday in all its 4,600 stores across the country. The company also plans to accept Google’s forthcoming Android Pay, as well as tap-to-pay credit cards.
What Brands Should Do
Despite being a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium that backs its own mobile payment system CurrentC which aims to compete with the likes of Apple Pay, Rite Aid has seemingly realized the importance of giving customers the option to use their prefered mobile payment method. Best Buy, also a member of MCX, announced a similar decision earlier this year. Such newfound acceptance among the national retailers will no doubt furher boost the adoption rate of mobile payments. For brands that wish to stay ahead of the digital curve, now would be the time to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.
Source: New York Times
