M-wallet: Google Wallet Adds in New Click and Mortar Features

• At its I/O 2012 event, the World first browser presented a new mobile app enabling storage of merchants’ online discounts on Google Wallet.

• The new feature called “Save to Wallet” allows Google Wallet users to upload online offers (displayed by their favourite e-merchants) to later on be presented in-store.

• When browsing the Web with their mobile, Google Wallet users can click a “Save to Wallet” button to load these offers. They are also notified prior to their expiration date.

• Customers may redeem their discounts in stores through contactless connection to the merchants’ system (if equipped), through presenting a picture of the given offer or using a barcode.

Source: Google I/O 2012

• This initiative highlights players’ interest in “one-stop shopping” praising the use of several channels to make a single payment: here, a discount is acquired online and redeemed in-store during the same customer process.

• Google relies on its mobile wallet to propose a ROPO offer (Research Online, Purchase Offline) to its partner merchants as well as to Google Wallet’s users.

• After a rather uneasy start for Google Wallet (with about 100,000 users only), this new app may be a means for Google to enhance its acceptance network through offering alternative acceptance solutions to merchants who do not have the required NFC-enabled POS system installed or those wishing to make a move online without an e-commerce website.