The fourth post in a series on the developments taking place within mobile technology.
iOS and Android both offer mobile wallets that allow users to store and manage payment cards, tickets, boarding passes and more. While there are platform differences, mobile wallet passes can be an innovative way of engaging a customer.
What are mobile wallet passes?
These are payment cards and tickets securely stored on a user’s device.
PassKit on iOS and Google Pay on Android allow organisations to deploy loyalty cards, gift cards and promotional offers to customers. iOS’s PassKit platform is slightly more flexible, allowing developers to also deploy boarding passes.
With a pass installed, users can interact with Bluetooth beacons that may be within the physical environment. Time and location can also be used to prominently display the pass on the user’s lock-screen.
The key use case for mobile wallets is to allow users to quickly interact with their physical environment. That may be through a loyalty card or ticket-based pass and may be a one-time event or a long-term customer interaction.
Mobile passes work best with an accompanying mobile app or website. This allows the pass and any notifications to link back to richer content and experiences. They are simple and cost-effective to deploy and maintain and can be scaled-up to create interactive location-based experiences.
Some innovative uses of mobile passes include real-time election results and the UK government’s testing of a digital drivers licence.
Ultimately, mobile wallet passes provide a lightweight customer engagement tool that can be leveraged in the future to promote complementary digital experiences.
Benefits of Mobile Wallet Passes
- Easily updateable
- Able to send push notifications to users
- Can dynamically change based on time, location or Bluetooth beacon
Delivery Challenges
- Limited to text-based content
- Platform differences can create inconsistent experiences