Kohl’s is the latest retailer to integrate their loyalty program with Apple Pay. Kohl’s announced last week that they are now integrating their Yes2You loyalty platform with Apple Pay so that customers can earn loyalty and pay, all with just one tap with their smartphone. This makes Kohl’s the second retailer behind Walgreens to integrate their loyalty and mobile payments systems. Kohl’s understands the advantages of blending the physical and digital worlds and wants to be at the forefront of this revolution.
“Kohl’s is blending the physical and digital shopping experiences in more ways than ever before. Offering conveniences to Kohl’s customers that make it easy for them – like a seamless one-tap checkout in Apple Pay that integrates our value-driven Yes2You Rewards loyalty program – is one of the ways that we are leading as an omnichannel retailer,” said Ratnakar Lavu, Kohl’s chief technology officer.“ We are continuing to innovate in mobile to provide an easy, seamless shopping experience whether it’s our mobile payment offerings, the features and functionality on Kohl’s mobile app or the Kohls.com experience on smartphones and tablets.”
Kohl’s appears to understand the importance and power that mobile has in the retail environment. However, the question remains as to whether or not Kohl’s will be able to successfully pull this off. Here are some of the keys to success that Kohl’s will want to take into consideration.
How Yes2You works
Kohl’s loyalty program is called Yes2You and it is a points based system where members earn money for each dollar spent. Members can access Yes2You through both the Kohl’s app and online. What makes Yes2You different than most loyalty programs is that members can add offers and coupons into their Yes2You wallets and store them all on their phone rather than having to carry the paper coupon around. This is really good news for Kohl’s because most of their members are using their phones to redeem coupons anyways, so adding mobile payments to the mix is natural.
Advice for Kohl’s
1. Make it easy to integrate into Apple Wallet
As of now, I am unable to add my Yes2You loyalty card into my Apple Wallet. I am not sure if that is because my store doesn’t offer it or if I just simply can’t figure out how. 9to5Mac has reported that Kohl’s has advised that you can use any payment card provided that you’ve added your Yes2You card to Apple Wallet and that you don’t have to use your Kohl’s Charge card. This means that I should somehow be able to add my Yes2You loyalty card into Apple Wallet.
2. Make sure it works
Customers can become very upset when they don’t receive the loyalty points that they should have simply because the system doesn’t work currently. Kohl’s needs to make sure that their system is working properly before they roll this out. Walgreens didn’t make it clear as to which stores had their mobile loyalty card system up and running and when I went to test it out, no one could figure out why. Check out the video below of me attempting to use the Walgreens loyalty card the day it came out.
3. Train employees
This is a big one. Even though Walgreens has had their mobile loyalty card intergrated with Apple Pay for quite a while now, employees still don’t know what it is or how it works. It is frustrating as a consumer when I go to use it and they have no idea what I’m doing. It is even more frustrating when it doesn’t work and they just give you a blank look because they haven’t even heard of mobile payments before. Big retailers like Kohl’s and Walgreens need to stop assuming that their employees know what mobile payments are and start providing the proper training for them.
If Kohl’s can deliver on those three things, their loyalty program integration with mobile wallets will be much smoother and much more successful. I am extremely excited to see how the Yes2You program performs within Apple Wallet. Kohl’s has a huge advantage over most retailers because their loyalty program is already mobile based and they have been accepting mobile payments for awhile. If you are able to add your Yes2You loyalty card to your Apple Wallet or have used it in a store, let me know how the experience was in the comments below!
