Givex has launched its Mobile Loyalty Wallet to give customers a convenient, secure way to carry mobile gift programs and rewards.
With merchants already developing their own mobile apps, complete with store locators, ads and other capabilities, they are looking for mobile wallet solutions, said Bryan Wang, Givex director of marketing.
Other mobile payment technologies, such as Near Field Communications (NFC), are heavily dependent on costly phone and POS hardware, requiring expensive upgrades as well as additional staff training, according to Wang. “Those programs work on only a small range of handsets, which customers may not have. That’s why these systems really haven’t gained traction.”
By contrast, the Givex Mobile Wallet enables merchants to accept card-less gift and loyalty transactions today by entering or scanning a consumer-generated 6-digit SUN (Single Use Number) on all Givex-enabled point-of-sale systems.
“We see the Mobile Wallet as an add-on to our other services,” Wang said, adding that other solutions, like Google Wallet, are seeking to dominate the mobile payments space rather than to provide a useful service for merchants.
Customers can access the wallet by downloading the appropriate app. Givex also offers a no-download version that sits on a mobile website and can be accessed by any smartphone's web browser. Givex is opening up the new wallet capability to all existing clients to start incorporating it into their gift and loyalty programs.
Wang also pointed out that the SUN provides an extra layer of security for the Givex solution. Other mobile wallets typically have various loyalty and payment card and other information all stored on the same “layer.” So when a consumer gives the phone to the merchant or staff to provide payment information, there is a danger of it being misappropriated for fraudulent use, Wang says. But the Givex app generates a single-use token that is usable only for a single transaction, and the app masks payment card numbers. The SUN can be generated on-screen as a QR code, bar code or 6-digit number.
Another advantage of the Givex Mobile Wallet is that it is a closed-loop solution, Wang added. Closed loop systems, with rewards and purchases made through the same merchant, ensure that the consumer returns to the same merchant again and again. Merchants have been hesitant to join loyalty programs with open loop systems for fear of losing customers to competitors, according to Wang.
“We’ve had incredible interest from our merchants, who want to incorporate [Givex Mobile Wallet] into the mobile apps and push it to their customers,” Wang said.