Mobile engagement provider Urban Airship took another step last week toward making the mobile wallet into a full-fledged marketing channel, by offering a service where loyalty cards can be updated via a single tap with Apple Pay.
The Portland, Oregon-based company says it is the first wallet provider to offer this capability, although some brands, such as Walgreens, had offered it in one-off implementations.
Previously, Director of Product Marketing Judy Chan told me, a user might have a loyalty card on a smartphone barcode-scanned at the cash register when paying. To join, the user might have filled out a paper form, or entered information letter-by-letter into a form on the screen.
Now, her company’s Urban Airship Reach service — which helps brands with loyalty passes, concert tickets and boarding passes for Apple Wallet and Android Pay — is supporting the value-added services industry protocol in Apple Pay.
This allows loyalty information to be sent across Apple Pay with the same tap as payment. The loyalty actions are also offered when the user employs Apple Pay on the web or through an app.
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