Google wants to get in on the loyalty program action to help woo more folks to try out Android Pay. The exec said that “millions” of Android users have linked card information to the service, more than 60 percent of them being users who had never tried Google Wallet (via Re/code). There are about 20000 NFC vending machines all over the United States and it is the first big step towards making customers use Android Pay. Android Pay was launched in early September and there are no official numbers disclosed by the company about its adoption, but Ramaswamy said that the number was in the “millions”.
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This loyalty program will apply to Android Pay and the first company that will be participating in it will be Coke. What will happen is that they’ll use their smartphone with Android Pay, tap it on the machine to buy your favorite soda, and then earn rewards points for doing so. It is unclear as to what these reward points offer, but presumably it will allow users to purchase more drinks at either discounted prices, or be able to redeem a free drink when they have collected enough points.
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To continue the growth of the mobile data service, Google will increase its marketing efforts and will partner with the major carriers AT&T, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless to have their sales rep trained to pitch the service; and so with American Express, Visa, Mastercard and card-issuing banks. “Android Pay also stores your gift cards, loyalty cards, and special offers right on your phone”, Google mentioned in a press release at the time.
