Death To Wallets

Rewind to a couple of weeks ago.

I'm in a hardware store and the cashier is asking me if I'm a member of their rewards program.

I lie. "No"

Why do I do this? Because my hands are full. I've got my stuff under one arm and have my wallet out. The plastic rewards card is on my keychain.
If I say yes, I have to do something with my wallet and debit card, and then dig in my pocket. Then sift through my keychain and isolate the appropriate plastic card so it can be scanned.

Sure, not a huge hassle, but when we're talking about a $7 purchase of wood screws and glazing compound - it's hard to find motivation to bother.
Plus, the rewards plan isn't money off - it's points that accumulate over time to earn like $5 off. I think. All these plans are different in details.

But all of them have a similar process.

You trade hassle for a small reward that may or not be relevant or available to your purchase.

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Now I'm at Borders, being asked the same question. I have their card as well. Mine's beat up as all hell, and sometimes doesn't scan. The backup plan at Borders is to give your email address to be credited with the purchase. A good backup, but also hassle. And Borders basic rewards plan gives you "Borders Bucks" that expire. How the hell do I know how many bucks I have? or when they'll expire? Oh, I know- I'll log into their website and do it because that's what I enjoy doing with my copious spare time. Logging into vendor's websites.

Gah.

Trading hassle for a small reward that may or not be relevant or available to your purchase - a reward that will go away if you don't use it.

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Now I'm in a local hobby store. They also have a rewards program. You get points or something. And games at hobby stores cost respectable amounts of money, so I'm motivated to find my card. And it is an actual card, not on my keychain. As I use it practically never it's not in the limited number of ready access slots in my wallet.

It's buried, or at home. There are people behind me, so after a minute or two of looking for it I give up and just say "forget it." The merchant writes a note on the receipt so that if I find it later, I can get credit for the purchase.

Now I have to keep the receipt. Keeping is easy - it will instantly become buried in the sheaf of tattered paper bits I keep in my wallet. Ostensibly this is "organizing" but really it's just merging with garbage I carry around until I lose my patience and pitch it en masse. And I'll be out the loyalty reward.

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So what's the point of all this? Rewards programs are great, but require the user to carry around a stack of cards AND dig them out at the right time AND keep track of what benefits are available to them at a given time AND when they expire.

Also, and I say this all the time - Paper receipts are stupid.

Much as the Apple store stuff annoys me - they have one thing right - they email you the receipt.

I've said over and over that a million dollar idea would be for somebody to consolidate the rewards interface - get the merchants to standardize on a common fob so the user only had one thing to carry around and manage.

I was thinking small - and clearly brighter minds have been working on this, but here's a great leap forward for individual commercial transactions.

Buying things with your cell phone.

Yes, well *duh* - but the mere transfer of money isn't what I getting at. This video shows Google Wallet looking like it’s about to kick Apple's transactional butt unless they get it in gear.

Google Wallet's using Near Field Communication to exchange payment and authentication data with a merchant's receiver. Which is plenty awesome right out of the gate.
Google Wallet stores your credit card info so your phone becomes your credit cards. Less crap in wallet. Hell, less reason to even have a wallet.



But this is the tip of the iceberg as far as I'm concerned. Because think of the plug in app potential here. Every damn vendor with a reward program can now offer an app that coattails on any transaction your phone kicks off.

As in:

Smart Phone: Hi anybody out there?
Cash Register: Why, yes. I'm a Borders cash register. Are you the party wanting to buy this copy of The Looming Tower?
Smart Phone: That's me! Here's my payment information.
Cash Register: Excellent, are you a Borders Rewards member?
Smart Phone: Yes, I am. Here's my member number. XXXXXXXXXX
Cash Register: Thank You. Your payment is confirmed. I've emailed you a receipt. And here's your updated reward status.

Smart Phone (to me, on the phone's display): Payment (Less 10% discount) Confirmed. Receipt sent via email.
Smart Phone (to the Borders Rewards App installed on it): Here's a Borders Reward status code. Any news?
Borders Reward App:: Thanks. Checking. Yes. This account now has 10 Borders Bucks, expiring on July 5, 2011.
Smart Phone (to me, on the phone's display): You now have 10 Borders Bucks, expiring on July 5, 2011.

From my perspective, this goes down in a self checkout lane.

I put the book on a scanner, wait for the book price to display on the terminal.
I launch the payment app, hold my phone up to the reader, and press "Accept"
There's a blip and I see:

Smart Phone (to me, on the phone's display):Payment (Less 10% discount) Confirmed. Receipt sent via email.
You now have 10 Borders Bucks, expiring on July 5, 2011.
Me: Sweet!

I no longer have to manage the rewards program. It becomes an integral part of the transaction. I pay, and all the reward crap happens automatically.

And I no longer have a keychain festooned with plasti-sh!t.
And I don't have to pretend to care about my receipt. If I need it, I'll search Gmail.

The App can even (assuming I let it) alert me to the fact that I have Borders Bucks as I begin the transaction.

Smart Phone (to me, on the phone's display): You have unused Borders Bucks, do you wish to apply them to this purchase?
Me: Sweet!

Frequent Flyer miles, Rental car rewards, Frequent Burrito rewards at Qdoba - all pushed to the background so all's I do is pay and the software tells me what I've won.

This must happen. I am directing my mental powers into the universe and WILLING this to happen.

I will pitch my vendor plastic into a fire and dance a jig when it does.