Mountain View, California — In an attempt to compete with the likes of e-Commerce giants such as PayPal and others, search engine behemoth Google on Monday said that it has expanded its Google Wallet payment system by including the ability to pay, earn points and added coupon redemption and other features to its SingleTap mobile payments capabilities.
Google, yesterday said that it has added the ability for consumers to not only pay for goods purchased from several retailers at select locations with the Google Wallet mobile payments system, but can redeem coupons and earn rewards points with a single tap of an NFC-ready Nexus S phone.
The new capability is called ‘SingleTap’. What this means is that a consumer using their Google Android-based Samsung Nexus S 4G smartphone can walk into a Jamba Juice and order a beverage.
When the consumer reaches the checkout counter he or she may tap their phone against a point-of-sale system and pay for the drink. Wallet will deduct a consumer’s digital coupon without making he or she whip out a piece of paper or rewards card to get stamped.
Google unfurled the new initiative with some additional discounts at the new partner retailers: Other participants joining Jamba Juice in this Google Wallet SingleTap venture include American Eagle Outfitters, Foot Locker, Guess, Jamba Juice, Macy’s, OfficeMax, The Container Store and Toys “R” Us in the U.S.
The new Google Wallet offers more information on the transaction, including the merchant name, date and time, and amount spent. (Credit: Google)
The search engine provider launched its Google Wallet mobile payment service Sept. 19 in New York City and San Francisco. The service takes advantage of NFC (near field communications) short-range wireless technology to let users tap Android smartphones against NFC-enabled checkout systems to pay for goods.
However, while the service seems to have made some great advances, there are certain challenges. The most glaring is the fact that Wallet will function with over 20 retailers and restaurants and Visa, American Express, Citi, MasterCard and Discover have all joined Wallet as credit card partners.
Moreover, Google said the the new coupon redemption capability occurs with the same tap made for a mobile payment. Therefore, a user could walk into a store and pay for merchandise and at the same time redeem coupons without the need to find them or a rewards card.
To give consumers some attractive reward to use Wallet, Google and its Wallet retail partners are trying to entice shoppers with coupons and deals.. Retailers offer coupons and rewards points for frequent shoppers, while Google has set up Google Offers, a local deals service that has spread across the country to challenge Groupon and LivingSocial in roughly 40 markets since April.
Google has also added a feature to the “Offers” tab in Google Wallet called “Featured Offers”. This shows discounts that are exclusive to Google Wallet.
Furthermore, the Offers tab in Google Wallet now promotes a new “Featured Offers” section with discounts that are exclusive to Google Wallet. Currently, these include 15 percent off at American Eagle Outfitters, 10 percent off at The Container Store, 15 percent off at Macy’s and a $2 smoothie at Jamba Juice. Again, no paper is involved. Users may save favorite coupons in Google Wallet so that they’ll be cashed in via SingleTap.
“Arranging loyalty cards in your wallet is getting easier too,” says Google’s Director, Emerging Markets, Spencer Spinnell. “Today, Foot Locker, Guess, OfficeMax and American Eagle Outfitters are providing loyalty cards for Google Wallet so you can rack up reward points automatically as you shop. More of these are on the way.”
“One more thing–in response to user feedback, we have enhanced transaction details for the Google Prepaid Card with real-time transaction information including merchant name, location, dollar value and time of each transaction,” adds Spinnell.
Google said Chevron, D’Agostino, Faber News Now, Gristedes Supermarkets and Pinkberry are now working to provide terminals to recognize Google Wallet.
Spinnell, said in the blog announcing the enhancements that it is “still early days for Google Wallet” but called today’s steps important.
{iframe width=”640″ height=”360″ align=”top”}http://www.youtube.com/embed/NKuUzNnb8aQ{/iframe}