Commonwealth Bank's Angus Sullivan
The Commonwealth Bank is taking the mobile wallet experience up a notch by launching two new features - loyalty and a CommBank Offers app.
The new loyalty feature allows consumers to store all their loyalty cards in the CommBank app by scanning the physical card’s barcode to make a virtual copy. This can then be used at the retailer’s checkout together with tap and pay, rolling together loyalty and payment credentials to the merchant.
A majority of loyalty partners are part of the program and there’s also a white-label feature where a consumer can add other loyalty programs, which aren’t part of the app’s in-built capability.
It is currently available on the Android platform and an iOS version will be released in a few weeks.
The financial institution is also partnering with Westfield shopping centre owner, Scentre Group to pilot the CommBank Offers app. This allows CommBank consumers to opt-in and gain access to tailored retail offers, which are based on a consumer’s shopping behaviour.
The app, which was developed in-house, will be launched under a geographically-based beta program in the coming months with more details to follow.
“This really builds out the whole mobile wallet offering,” Commonwealth Bank executive general manager of retail products and strategy, Angus Sullivan said.
“Mobile banking has been hugely successful for us. The uptake has happened much more rapidly than we expected in the 12 months from March 2014 - 2015 where our mobile banking customer numbers have doubled from 1.7 to 3.4 million users and we’ve now got 3.7 million unique users on the CommBank app.”
Sullivan said it invested in the partnership with Scentre Group to ensure it has the right technology, partners and customer process in place.
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“It’s a great opportunity for our merchants to get access to CommBank customers,” he said.
Scentre Group general manager for brandspace, Bill Burton, said the partnership was a critical part of its broader IT strategy.
“Our relationship with Commonwealth Bank is about hurrying up ways to utilise a lot of the digital infrastructure projects that are we’re busily building around the place. We have a Westfield Labs set up in San Francisco that looks at how we use technology to make the shopping experience more seamless, drive sales and make our retailers more profitable.
“As we move into the digital economy, it’s not just about having these digital platforms, but also talking to our retailers and helping them to understand what we’re doing and why.”
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