Tag: cvs

Customers will be able to use the CVS Pharmacy app when they make a purchase in-store.

The new CVS mobile payment system launched recently. The service allows shoppers to use their smartphones to complete a purchase transaction in-store. They simply need to use the CVS Pharmacy app to access the new wallet features.

The pharmacy has been resistant to the use of mobile wallets until now and has not previously accepted them.

For instance, Apple Pay is not available at the pharmacy locations. This, despite the fact that the iPhone mobile wallet is considered one of the most successful smartphone payment service. Now, the situation has become much clearer. CVS launched its mobile payment system so customers can shop at the store through its own app.

One considerable advantage of the CVS Pay mobile payment system is the inclusion of the rewards program.

Prior to the launch of this mobile wallet, shoppers were required to show their CVS rewards cards. Alternately, they needed to tell the cashier their name and birth date so their rewards account could be found in the computer. After that, their items were rung through and they could pay for their purchases.

The use of the CVS Pay mobile app makes it possible for customers to receive rewards points automatically. The app lets them pay and collect points all in one place and one transaction.

Brian Tilzer, the chief digital officer at CVS, explained that the process is quite easy for consumers. “With one scan, we’re taking away three or four extra steps that customers have lived with for a long time,” he said.

So far, the mobile app has been given the nod by the media, on the whole. It has been compared to CVS rival Walmart’s mobile payment application. In fact, some have even compared this new system to Starbucks, which is considered to be the most successful application of a mobile wallet.

That said, the goal of the CVS mobile payment system is to make it easier for customers to pick up their prescriptions. It makes it possible for Flexible Spending Accounts and Health Spending Accounts information to be stored. This makes it fast and easy to split purchases. The app works both in-store and at the drive through window.

The newly released mobile wallet from Apple is already being shut down by the competition.

According to The New York Times, Rite Aide and CVS Health, two prominent retailers in America, stopped Apple Pay from working in their stores across the country over this past weekend, and although the decision may not make sense in terms of ensuring customer satisfaction, as a business decision it makes more sense considering these retailers and others are planning to implement a mobile payments system that will compete with Apple’s.

A group of retailers are currently working on a mobile payments system called CurrentC

Although CVS did not comment on the decision, A Rite Aid spokesperson, Ashley Flower, said that Rite Aid “does not currently accept Apple Pay,” and that the company was “still in the process of evaluating [its] mobile payment options.”

Furthermore, while Apple also declined to comment on the recent actions taken by the retailers, the chief emerging payments officer at MasterCard, Ed McLaughlin, said that MasterCard believes customers should be able to pay using any method they want and that Rite Aid and CVS made the wrong choice. The well-known credit card company has teamed with Apple on the new system.

However, while the move made by many retailers across the US to disable Apple’s contactless payments has come as a surprise to many, analysts say that disabling Apple Pay could have been a decision that was made to benefit a rival m-payments system known as CurrentC, which is currently being developed by Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium of merchants, which include CVS, Rite Aid, Gap Inc., Walmart, and Best Buy, among others.

Many believe that Apple Pay will give CurrentC a run for its money.

CurrentC, which is set to be released in 2015, will be connected to the debit account of consumer’s who uses it via an app that users download. This means the payments system would bypass credit card companies, which could mean that merchants might potentially save money on how much they pay in fees for every transaction. To make a purchase, the merchant has to scan a QR code, which initiates the transaction.

Apple Pay, on the other hand, only works with the company’s newly released iPhone 6 devices and it basically supplants tradition credit cards, giving consumers the power to pay for their merchandise with a wave of their smartphone using NFC (near field communication) technology. Presently, over 220,000 retailers are equipped with this technology.

The New York Times reported that those who are opposed to CurrentC say that the system will be harder to use than Apple Pay, as it will require customers to unlock phones or open an app, which is more complex than simply paying with a credit card or cash. McLaughlin believes Apple will win in the end because its payment system “is the most convenient, most secure, and what’s best for consumers.”