Android Pay launched in early September, but now that it’s here, that doesn’t mean that Google will be resting and making us wait for new features.
Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s SVP of Ads & Commerce, revealed today at the Money20/20 conference that Android Pay will be gaining a loyalty program. Ramaswamy said that the first partner will be Coca-Cola, who will utilize the program to give reward points to consumers whenever they use Android Pay at an NFC-enabled Coke vending machine, of which there are around 20,000. Those reward points can then be used to, of course, buy more Coca-Cola.
Ramaswamy also said that Google will be working to raise consumer awareness of Android Pay with partnerships. Google will be partnering with AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to train the carrier reps to promote Android Pay to customers, and it’ll also team with American Express, MasterCard, and Visa to help get Android Pay into the minds of consumers.
Android Pay is still in its infancy — as are mobile payments in general, really — and so Google is wise to partner with carriers and credit card companies to help raise consumer awareness of its new payment service. Exactly how effective Google’s partners will be at informing customers about Android Pay remains to be seen, but Google with Apple Pay and Samsung Pay also making news lately, Google needs to make sure that all non-Samsung Android users need to be aware that they’ve got a payment service, too.
Have you used Android Pay yet? If so, what was the experience like?
