CVS Health launches mobile payments app CVS Pay for iOS and Android, starting in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, and nationwide by year end
wait for it — CVS Pay Boyd Chan / Neowin : CVS Pharmacy rolls out its own end-to-end mobile payment solution Erin Pensa / CVS Health : CVS Pharmacy Launches Breakthrough, End-to-End Mobile Payment Experience Bill Hardekopf / Forbes : This Week In Credit Card News: Self-Checkout Increases Theft; Oracle's Point-Of Sale Systems Hacked Matt Hamblen / TechConnect : CVS launches CVS Pay, plans to roll it out nationwide Caitlin McGarry / Macworld : CVS really doesn't want to accept Apple Pay Andrew Myrick / Phandroid : So much for Android Pay or Apple Pay coming to CVS locations Mariella Moon / Engadget : CVS launches its own mobile payment system PYMNTS.com : CVS Pay Joins The M-Pay Bandwagon Jules Wang / Pocketnow : CVS Pay lets you grab your prescriptions with one scan Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider : CVS continues Apple Pay snub, launches barcode-based ‘CVS Pay’ Christian de Looper / Digital Trends : Samsung admits that it's possible for someone to steal Samsung Pay tokens Chance Miller / 9to5Mac : CVS introduces ‘CVS Pay’ barcode-based payment platform as it continues to resist Apple Pay Brittany A. Roston / SlashGear : CVS Pay officially unveiled, dashing Apple Pay rumors Evan Selleck / Android and Me : CVS Pay is a new mobile payment option to use at CVS pharmacies Joe Wright / AppAdvice.com Latest : Instead of Adopting Apple Pay, CVS Launches CVS Pay Julian Chokkattu / Digital Trends : CVS Pay uses a barcode to let customers make purchases with their phones Adnan Farooqui / Ubergizmo : CVS Pay Is The Pharmacy's Own Mobile Payment Service Alex Wagner / PhoneDog.com : CVS Pay is a new mobile payment service for use at CVS Pharmacy stores Joe Rossignol / MacRumors : CVS Launches Barcode-Based ‘CVS Pay’ in Lieu of Apple Pay Alex Fitzpatrick / TIME : This New App Proves Mobile Payments Are a Mess Evan Selleck / iPhone Hacks : CVS Launches ‘CVS Pay’ to Take on Apple Pay John Kell / Fortune : CVS Will Let You Pay for Prescriptions With Your Phone Tweets: Mike Dudas / @mdudas : Not sure a human on Earth in 2011 would have predicted that 2016 would be the year of QR code mobile payments. http://techcrunch.com/... Joanna Stern / @joannastern : Come on. Just take Apple and Android Pay already. http://twitter.com/... Ben Bajarin / @benbajarin : This too shall pass.. Amazing how some companies delay the inevitable. http://twitter.com/... Josh Dickson / @joshdickson40 : All the bad ideas of CurrentC but with even fewer retailers! http://twitter.com/... Thanks: @brianroemmele
Context & Ripple Effects
CVS has spent two years as the most prominent US holdout against tap-to-pay, refusing Apple Pay and Google's Android Pay network of 700K stores even as Apple Pay reached 2M retail locations. With CVS Pay, it joins Target, which was reported in late 2015 to be developing its own mobile wallet, in the camp of big-box retailers that would rather own the checkout than rent it from Apple or Google.
The rollout — four Northeast states first, nationwide by year end — makes CVS the test case for whether a pharmacy chain's frequency of visits and loyalty data can carry a proprietary wallet where general retailers have struggled.
First-order effects
- CVS shoppers in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware who want mobile payment must install and fund the CVS Pay app; Apple Pay and Android Pay remain blocked at CVS registers nationwide.
Second-order effects
- Other large retailers watching CVS get a template for keeping transaction and loyalty data in-house, extending the merchant-wallet push Target started and pressuring card networks over who owns the customer relationship at checkout.
Third-order effects
- If merchant wallets proliferate, mobile payments fragment into platform wallets versus retailer wallets — though the corpus suggests the wall was temporary: by 2018 Apple had announced Apple Pay would be accepted at CVS and 7-Eleven stores, implying proprietary-wallet exclusivity gave way to coexistence, with retailer apps surviving for loyalty and pharmacy rather than payment lock-in.
The trend: Large US retailers are building proprietary mobile wallets to control checkout data and interchange, a merchant-versus-platform standoff that the corpus shows bending back toward platform-wallet acceptance within two years.