National drugstore chain Walgreens has updated its app for iOS for iPhones and iPads that facilitates order pickup and streamlines payment with Apple Pay. The Walgreens app also added same-day delivery and in-store pickup via Apple Pay or Apple Card.
Walgreens customers using the Apple Pay option through the app also get 3 percent cash back in Daily Cash on their purchases, according to reports. Customers using the Apple Card in Walgreens retail stores will get the same 3 percent in Daily Cash with the card when they make the purchase from their iPhone or Apple Watch. Users who are myWalgreens rewards members can add their member card to the iPhone and Apple Watch Wallet app for in-store purchases at checkout.
Walgreens said that its recent earnings were negatively affected by the season’s reduction in cold and flu cases. Accordingly, same-store sales dropped 3.5 percent.
Apple has aggressively moved to provide Apple Pay access to the 207.6 million adults who use smartphones and have mobile wallets, which also enables use at eligible physical stores. Walgreens has over 9,000 brick-and-mortar locations.
Apple Pay launched in 2014 with a mobile wallet that prompted concerns over possible disruption to in-store payments. Monitoring by PYMNTS has seen sluggish adoption of Apple Pay, with actual use among consumers with Apple Pay-enabled phones struggling to get past the 5 percent mark.
Competitor Rite Aid said it experienced a similar trend, with a decline of almost 40 percent in its high-margin cough, cold and flu remedies business. It anticipated that its quarterly results would be “significantly impacted.”
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