Source: CVS Health, iTunes
Move over Apple, Starbucks, Walmart, et al — CVS Health is getting into mobile payments.
The company announced yesterday the addition of CVS Pay to the chain’s mobile app. The upgraded app integrates the payment option with its ExtraCare loyalty program and prescription pickup capabilities. The mobile payment option, which works on both Android and Apple devices, is initially being launched in Delaware, New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, with plans for a nationwide rollout to CVS’s 9,600 stores later this year.
To use the new mobile payment feature, CVS customers add their credit or debit card information to the app. At the checkout, they pull up a barcode that cashiers scan to process the payment. Customers receive a confirmation within the app that the payment has gone through.
"Over the past year, our digital team has brought to market numerous new digital tools — like CVS Pay — that make shopping at CVS Pharmacy easier and more convenient," said Brian Tilzer, senior vice president and chief digital officer, CVS Health. "We've been excited by the level of customer adoption of these digital solutions, and we will continue our quick pace of innovation and deployment to make our customers' health care experience even easier."
Twenty-eight percent of smartphone users have made a mobile payment over the past year with a third of those purchasing something in a store, according to a Federal Reserve survey conducted earlier this year, Fortune reports.
Research by eMarketer, according to a USA Today report, shows about 20 percent of Americans using mobile payment methods in stores. The number of individuals using mobile payments has increased 62 percent since last year.