CVS the Customer Experience Store

I found this little article to be well worth your time.

CVS has been doing pretty serious work over in R.I. trying to crack the code of the Age of the Customer.

Here is the full article on their concept stores and then one on their overall initiatives:

https://risnews.com/first-look-inside-cvs-healthhub-concept-stores

https://risnews.com/cvs-invests-big-customer-experience

Here is a snippet from the piece on their concept stores:

“We're opening a series of healthcare concept stores which will be a testing ground for a new retail engagement model that brings healthcare services to consumers in a more convenient, more accessible, and more customer focused manner,” Merlo said speaking at the JPMorgan Healthcare Conference. “As we pilot new programs and service offerings we will identify the solutions that are most effective and scalable and then roll them out more broadly across our footprint.”

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Update on Mobile Pay and Apple Pay

USA Today has posted a couple stories on mobile payments the last week.  This one is worth a read.

Biggest news is a couple retailers joining Apple Pay, CVS Pharmacy and 7-Eleven, and US Chase adding Apple Pay to its ATMs.

If you know payments you know that last one is hard to do.  ATMs are quite different from other needs.

Here is the full article:

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/talkingtech/2018/08/04/mobile-pay-had-great-week-but-apple-google-still-have-long-road-ahead/904569002/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Retailers Turning Off Apple Pay

The biggest news in payments over the past week hasn't been Apple Pay, but rather the retailers that first accepted but no longer accept Apple Pay.

CVS and Rite Aid are in the news for this:

http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/10/26/cvs-follows-rite-aid-shuts-off-apple-pay/17959213/

The various takes on the story are a story unto itself.  Balanced news can be found here:

http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-10-27/why-rite-aid-and-cvs-stopped-taking-apple-pay

Here is a snippet from that piece:

That’s not the whole story. Objections to Apple Pay aren’t actually about convenience, reliability, or security—they are about a burgeoning war between a consortium of merchants, led by Walmart (WMT), and the credit card companies. Rite Aid, CVS, Walmart, Best Buy (BBY), and about 50 other retailers have been working on their own mobile payments system, called CurrentC. Unlike Apple Pay, which works in conjunction with Visa (V), MasterCard (MA), and American Express(AXP), CurrentC cuts out the credit card networks altogether. The benefit to the merchants is clear: They would save the swipe fees they now pay to the credit card companies, which average about 2 percent of the cost of transactions.

Unbalanced news can be found here on Gizmodo:

http://gizmodo.com/how-corporate-greed-is-trying-to-kill-apple-pay-1651233601

Here is a snippet from that piece:

When Apple Pay launched last week, it was a huge step towards the pay-with-your-phone future that's been in the works for years. But a few big retailers like Walmart, Best Buy, and CVS want to blow the whole thing up and replace it with something shittier, because they don't care about you at all.

Here is Karen Webster's take:

http://www.pymnts.com/news/2014/the-real-reason-rite-aid-dumped-apple-pay/#.VE6XyCLF_9Y

Here is a snippet from her piece:

Last week, it was announced that Rite Aid abruptly deactivated its terminals and would no longer be able to accept Apple Pay. There was speculation swirling that it was because of concerns over security or data privacy, both totally ludicrous claims/spin given Apple’s highly secure payments scheme and total inability to see transaction or cardholder data. Say what you will about Apple Pay and its chances of success, but it is a highly innovative and secure method of payment using the mobile device.

...

But I also offer that horror movie playing between Treasury/Marketing folks at every CurrentC/MCX merchant could get pretty gruesome. And, I think that this could even foreshadow the second big post Apple Pay shift in payments – the unraveling of CurrentC.

For my part I was at Walgreen's over the weekend to pick up a prescription for my daughter.  The payment terminal was advertising Apple Pay.  Right above that was a placard on the wall that read "Please Turn Off Cell Phone".  Well, we have a ways to go yet.

Quite a lot of news this past week huh?

TechCrunch has some inside views of the CurrentC app.  Wow.  How did they get their hands on this stuff?

http://techcrunch.com/2014/10/25/currentc/

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

Apple iWallet Patent

This could eventually become big news.

On January 16, 2014, the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application from Apple that reveals a secure iWallet system that goes beyond NFC to include new Air Interfaces including a form of Bluetooth, such as iBeacon. 

The entire story can be read at Patently Apple:

http://www.patentlyapple.com/patently-apple/2014/01/apple-patent-reveals-secure-iwallet-system-with-ibeacon.html

Happy Reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**
The news continues to come out regarding Apple and a possible foray in to payments.
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2429943,00.asp

This has been followed by articles that elaborate a bit such as this one:
http://www.digitaltransactions.net/news/story/4487

Here is a snippet from that piece:

Having been for years at the center of speculation on the matter, Apple Inc. may finally be readying a foray into mobile payments, according to news reports over the weekend.

...

Finally, for a move into physical stores, Apple could rely on iBeacon, a Bluetooth low-energy technology that detects mobile devices in proximity and links them to store point-of-sale systems for quick checkouts.

”The physical merchant ecosystem isn’t quite ready for this sort of service, so I think it’s a bit further down the road, but the promulgation of mobile POS systems or potential partnerships with major [financial institutions], payment networks, MCX, or large merchants could be accelerants to make this happen sooner,” Oglesby notes. MCX is Merchant Customer Exchange, a Dallas-based mobile-payments venture controlled by big-box retailers, including Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Best Buy Co Inc., and CVS/pharmacy.

**UPDATE #2**
Another good reading from Karen Webster:
http://www.pymnts.com/briefing-room/mobile/playmakers/2014/as-the-mobile-payments-world-turns

Best Reading of the Day - Entry 0049 Digital Marketing

Another excellent read by the folks at Econsultancy.  This article speaks to interesting digital marketing stats.

What is "Digital Marketing"??

The following is taken from the WikiPedia entry:

Digital marketing is marketing that makes use of electronic devices such as computers, tablets, smartphones, cellphones, digital billboards, and game consoles to engage with consumers and other business partners. Internet Marketing is a major component of digital marketing.

Here is a link to the article:

10-interesting-digital-marketing-stats-weve-seen-this-week

Here is one of the ten from the article:

John Lewis predicts a mobile Christmas

• John Lewis has predicted that this year will be the UK’s first ‘mobile Christmas’ with traffic from mobile phones and tablets overtaking that from desktops for the first time on Christmas Day itself.

• Mobile made up almost 50% of all traffic to johnlewis.com on 25 December 2012, with the peak hour being 9pm.

• The busiest day on mobile last year was 26 December, with over 920,000 visits. Over 1m visits are estimated for this Boxing Day which will be a new record for mobile.

• Mobile now accounts for over 40% of traffic to johnlewis.com and traffic is up over 115% year on year.

Happy reading,

J.W. Gant

**UPDATE**

Here is a great example of how digital is transforming marketing:
cvs-unveils-personalized-circulars

Here is a snippet from that article:

CVS/pharmacy is giving that venerable but perhaps a bit tired marketing channel -- the weekly circular -- a digital makeover. It includes personalized promotions focused on products of interest to consumers.


Have a great weekend.