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Mobile-wallet provider OmnyPay Inc. is nearing the launch of its white-label service, which includes payments, loyalty, and offers, with a top 30 U.S. retailer. The debut is expected within the next few months.
That’s the word from Mohammad Khan, OmnyPay president and cofounder, in an interview with Digital Transactions News. This comes some eight months after the company’s launch last year. Khan is well-known in the payments industry as a founder of ViVOtech Inc., an early player in near-field communication, and before that an executive with terminal maker VeriFone Systems Inc.
OmnyPay hopes to entice retailers with the capability of enabling consumers to make a mobile payment, redeem offers and earn loyalty points in a single transaction. Khan says the undisclosed retailer fits OmnyPay’s criteria for its business model.
That model is uniquely specific and has four criteria. The merchant must already have a mobile app and offer a private-label or cobranded payment card it can promote with OmnyPay. It also must have a loyalty or reward program in place and have already decided to embark on a digital-commerce plan.
“We are consciously focusing on very large retailers,” Khan says. “With [those] criteria, it allows us to resonate with that merchant a lot more efficiently in real time.”
All four factors are essential, Khan says, but the availability of a private-label card or cobranded card could have a big impact on the retailer. Not only can the retailer steer the consumer to the card within the app and tie offers and rewards to it, but OmnyPay’s service enables the consumer to use a digitized version of the payment card across channels, Khan says.
OmnyPay also can offer a private-label or cobranded card application within the app and, upon issuer approval, provision the app with a digital version of the card within 60 seconds, Khan says. OmnyPay also is working on a split-ticket function that would enable a consumer to apply a portion of the price to the store card and the rest on an installment-payment plan. Khan says this function is in development, but the company is talking with some banks about it.
Consumers can use their retailer credentials to log into a participating retailer’s e-commerce site, and receive the same offers as they would in the app, he says. “It makes it easier for the consumer to participate,” he says, and “it allows the consumer to stay with the private-label or cobranded card and incentives in any of the channels.”
The goal is to provide an app full of digital services so repeat customers can use the app before they arrive at the checkout line. Then, when it is time to check out, the app helps them easily make the payment, redeem loyalty points, and earn more rewards, Khan says.
Retailers, he says, have not had this type of digital service before, which makes it “refreshing.” But more important, he suggests, having such a service will make it less likely the consumer will open a competitor’s app in the retailer’s store, an act dubbed “showrooming.” In many cases, the consumer might shop on Amazon.com Inc.’s app or another competitor while looking at the same product in a store. “If the retailer can enable their mobile app to be equally powerful, why would that repeat customer go somewhere else?” Khan asks.
