What Happened
Walgreens has become the first retailer to fully integrate its loyalty program into Android Pay with NFC support, aiming to speed up the check-out process for Android users. Once the loyalty card is added to Android Pay, Walgreens shoppers only need to tap their phone once at check-out to get their Balance Rewards points, eliminating the need to manually scan their membership card.
In terms of support for loyalty programs, Android Pay is just catching up to Apple Pay, which has supported loyalty card integration since the launch of iOS 9 in late 2015. In fact, Walgreens was also the first U.S. retailer to integrate its loyalty program with Apple Pay. Earlier this summer Walgreens started testing digital coupon integration in Apple Pay to help customers save.
What Brands Need To Do
As it expands loyalty card support to Android Pay, Walgreens is making its check-out experience more convenient for more shoppers. Other retailers need to take a cue and start making their loyalty programs more accessible across platforms.
To learn more about how brands can leverage digital tools to fully engage customers across sales channels, check out the Boundless Retail section in our Outlook 2016.
Source: 9to5 Google
