WOONSOCKET, R.I.—CVS Health has introduced CVS Pay, the company’s own mobile payments solution.
Not only does the new payments platform allow users to pay for products and prescriptions, it also returns loyalty points, TechCrunch.com reported.
CVS Pay isn’t tap and go, but instead uses barcodes—POS terminals scan the barcode on a person’s smartphone. CVS told TechCrunch.com that a key benefit of CVS Pay is that it eliminates a number of steps it takes today to complete a checkout and receive rewards.
Currently, CVS customers have to either present their physical CVS rewards card at the register, or they have to say their name and birthday in order for the store associate to look up their account information. Then, after their purchases and prescriptions are run up, they have to pay.
Now, all the verifications for the prescriptions and the payment—including name, birthdate, signature, and PIN—will take place in the app, the website reported.
“What we’re trying to do is provide real utility and solve real problems for customers using digital,” explains Brian Tilzer, CVS Health’s chief digital officer. “With one scan, we’re taking away three or four extra steps that customers have lived with for a long time.”
CVS Pay will be the first mobile payments solution CVS Pharmacy has adopted. The company doesn’t support Apple Pay or other rival, NFC-based technologies at its registers.