Punchh’s Loyalty Program, Coupled With Apple Pay, Comes to Three Eatery Chains

Apple Pay users visiting restaurants that are part of Punchh Inc.’s restaurant-loyalty service will be able to earn and redeem points when using the mobile-payment service, Punchh announced Thursday.

Smashburger, Quiznos, and MOD Pizza will offer the Apple Pay/Punchh service later this year, Mountain View, Calif.-based Punchhsays.

Apple Pay users will be prompted at checkout to add the restaurant’s loyalty program to their Apple Wallet. From then on, they will automatically earn points and receive offers, Punchh says.

Apple Inc. added loyalty integration with Apple Pay a few years ago. Retailer Kohl’s, which subsequently launched its own Kohl’s Pay service, was among the first to offer payment and the capability to earn loyalty points in the same Apple Pay transaction.

“Since Apple Pay users will be prompted to join our loyalty program upon payment at the register, we believe that the opportunity to drive revenue growth through repeat visits and higher sales is enormous,” said David Martinelli, Smashburger senior director of marketing, in a press release.

Punchh says merchants using its service will be able to match customers who have opted into their loyalty programs with their payments and receipts, know which menu items they purchased, and provide incentives for them to use Apple Pay.

In related news, it turns out consumers like to share the mobile-wallet coupons and loyalty cards they store in Apple Wallet. That’s according to a survey from Urban Airship, which provides automated loyalty programs. Portland, Ore.-based Urban Airship announced an Apple Pay integration in February.

The analysis of more than 1 million Apple Wallet coupons and loyalty cards found that each mobile-wallet pass—a digital version of a card or coupon stored in Apple Wallet—installed is shared and added to 3.3 other mobile devices on average. Urban Airship says that is a 4.3x share rate. Or, put another way, more than three-fourths of retailer passes installed on iPhones were there because of sharing rather than because they were created and distributed through a brand’s marketing channels. Each Apple Wallet pass includes a built-in Share link.

“This data shows Apple Wallet passes unlock network effects for business growth, lowering the cost of customer acquisition by offering an incredibly simple path for customer referrals and repeat business,” said Brett Caine, Urban Airship chief executive and president, in a press release.

Urban Airship also found that mobile-wallet coupons are shared an average of 5.3 times, compared with 3.9 times for a loyalty card stored in Apple Wallet.