Mobile wallet app Suretap is letting Canadians ditch even more plastic from their physical wallets. The Toronto-based company, which is co-owned by Rogers, Bell and Telus, has partnered with loyalty commerce management company Points to bring loyalty programs to its mobile wallet.
The Suretap app allows Android and BlackBerry smartphone users to make mobile credit card payments at any retailer that accepts contactless payments, and store gift cards from 30 retailers, including Indigo, Forever 21 and Cineplex.
With the Points partnership, users can now store their loyalty card information from more than 100 rewards programs.
“Canadians are highly loyalty-conscious and the average Canadian has between seven to nine loyalty cards in the wallet today,” said Jeppe Dorff, president of Suretap.
“The relationship [with Points] is a natural extension of what we’ve been doing with [other partners], which is trying to make sure that whatever brand representation Canadians have in their leather wallet today can be present in their mobile device tomorrow.”
Users of the Suretap app will be able to collect and redeem points as well as check their balance. In addition, they can transfer points between different programs. “If you have a hundred points on your Scene card, you’ll be able to move them into your air miles program, straight from the wallet itself,” explained Dorff. “You have the ability to consolidate your points into the program that you feel provides the most value for you or the brand that you interact with the most.”
While research shows that only 10% of Canadians regularly make payments using their smartphones, loyalty cards could give adoption a much-need boost.
“Loyalty integration gives consumers a compelling reason to switch to a digital wallet as a payment method,” said Danielle Brown,vice-president of marketing at Points.
“While a mobile wallet on its own is a convenient way to pay, so are physical cards. The ability to seamlessly integrate loyalty in a mobile transaction is what we think will make digital wallets sticky.”
