The Mobile Wallet has evolved to counter many consumer concerns around security, payments and personal information sharing. Digital wallets have now prompted a slew of brands to enable customers to make a mobile purchase and offer extensive loyalty programmes, a trend that is finally coming to fruition after years of prediction.
Brands are seeking out ways to fuel digital wallet adoption and higher engagement through mobile channels. One way of reducing concerns about mobile wallets is to ensure that loyalty plays a starring role in completing transactions. The Mobile Wallet has established itself as a secure payment gateway with widespread adoption. The future of the Mobile Wallet will be the loyalty function and how brands take on evolving technology to engage the consumer in new and innovative ways. Many industry experts are now looking at how the Mobile Wallet is the perfect medium to enable loyalty points as a form of brand currency, enabling a true value exchange between the brand and its customers.
For Novice Mobile Wallet Loyalty
Paying via earned rewards is a tangible way to ease your customers into mobile wallet technology. If your consumers are new to smartphone transactions, they are often wary of the process and technology. It has been reported that more than half of individuals that are not using a mobile wallet listed security as their primary concern. This indicates that brands must offer an added incentive to drive up mobile wallet usage and adoption rates – which is where loyalty steps in.
There are several examples of brands using loyalty to replace the need for financial transactions. Starbucks is one of the early adopters of mobile loyalty as a currency, allowing its “My Starbucks Rewards Customers” to collect stars for each purchased beverage and redeem ten stars for a free drink. The fact that consumers do not need to input personal credit card information to participate in the program is an attractive factor for many people.
This suggests that some consumers find loyalty points to be a safer way to pay, meaning that marketers not currently offering mobile wallet-reward program hybrids are set to be on the losing end this year.
The concept is not new, the paper loyalty card programme has been a long-established tool for retailers. What is new is how the Mobile Wallet will be used to enable this and the scale of the opportunity-driven from it.
For Enabled Mobile Wallet Customers
Mobile wallet technology is widely adopted to buy mobile-savvy users giving little concern to marketers wanted to leverage the digital wallet, the key to success will be how marketers are driving adoption among novices. Providing relevant value and utility within mobile wallets is the most effective way of gaining fans.
Several airlines have adopted the strategy of offering pay-via-loyalty-points choices to individuals. Airlines are now able to allow consumers to purchase flight tickets on smartphones with frequent-flier miles. This approach is intended to fuel more mobile bookings made via airline’s direct sites, therefore snatching business away from third-party services such as Expedia or Orbitz.
Mobile Wallet Technology is well established and widely adopted as a payment system, the evolution of the technology is enabling marketers to offer loyalty, discounts and offers to their customers. The next alliteration of this technology will see wider adoption of the technology that has alleviated security concerns by offering loyalty rewards as a brand-specific currency.