The talk about loyalty programs and payments has centered on one word – mobile – over the past year or so. There have been some experiments, notably the mobile application helping Sovereign Cash Rewards customers locate merchants and take advantage of offers within this performance based local merchant network. The Sovereign Bank app created by Affinity Solutions can be found here in the iTunes app store and you’ll see some of the capabilities available.
Starbucks launched a mobile application to serve as the principal touchpoint for its My Starbucks Rewards program. In a discussion of the company’s 2012 Q1 results, Starbucks executives highlighted the impact of the Starbucks Card and the mobile payment app , saying that it supports increased purchase frequency, and contributed to second quarter revenue growth, as U.S. customers loaded $500 Million on their cards in December, up more than 23% from the same period of the previous year.
Starbucks also reported that it gained 413,000 new members to the My Starbucks Rewards program in December, bringing total membership to more than 3.7 million. Growth in China is skyrocketing, with 250,000 already enrolled in My Starbucks Rewards. In North America, the card accounts for almost 25% of customer purchases.
Now CVS has gone mobile, announcing its app for iPhone and Android today. Though there are a host of things the app can do to benefit program members, the most important being (to me) that coupons can be loaded to the card and redeemed using the smartphone at the point of sale. Remembering your membership card or even your phone number associated with the account is no longer an issue.
Of course the app has a store locator and lets you check up on weekly specials as well as scan product QR codes in store. It also has a prescription function that makes it easy to access your prescription history and refill prescriptions on the go.
Soon, whether you are thinking about making your Saturday errands a little easier to knock off, or simply want to get the most from your rewards program,”don’t leave home without it” will take on a whole new meaning.