Walgreens Becomes First Retail Store To Directly Integrate Rewards Points With Android Pay

Members of Walgreens Balance Rewards are now able to easily apply their loyalty account at checkout by way of Google’s mobile payment system, Android Pay. By becoming the first retail store to directly integrate loyalty points with the contactless mode of payment, Walgreens provides its more than 85 million active members of Walgreens Balance Rewards access to Android Pay, which could serve as a fast, easy, and safe means for members to earn and make use of loyalty points in-store. Moreover, members no longer need to scan or enter their Balance Rewards cards when paying for stuff they bought.

As explained by Abhi Dhar, the senior vice president and chief information officer of Walgreens, the company has always been eager to explore the new technologies that improve the user experience of its customers. Apart from enjoying the convenience of Android Pay, the integration of the retailer’s loyalty program allows its customers better flexibility and a much faster way to transact and at the same time, earn or use their loyalty points.

In order to take full advantage of the loyalty program by way of Android Pay, members can simply add their Balance Rewards card information to the Android Pay mobile app, which can be downloaded from Google Play. When facilitating payment transactions, users need only hold their Android powered mobile device near the personal identification number (PIN) pad, and right after, the appropriate loyalty information is then applied. To checkout, users only have to hold their Android handset again near the PIN pad to complete the payment transaction. As soon as users set up Android Pay in their mobile devices, they should be able to continue to enjoy all of the rewards and benefits offered by credit and debit cards.

According to Pali Bhat, senior director of product management at Google, Android Pay was created in order to help simplify the payment process in in-store transactions. And this should cover every facet of the process, including the use of loyalty cards. Joining forces with Walgreens was a perfect opportunity to not only speed up the checkout process, but also let customers experience for themselves how easy it is to actually use a mobile payment system like Android Pay.

Walgreens has over 8,000 outlets spread across the whole of the United States, and Android Pay now counts itself as one of the many options available to customers when they are paying for their purchases.