Learn how to encourage customer loyalty with mobile wallet marketing.
Like any kind of relationship marketing, mobile wallet marketing will help you stay top of mind with your customers, drive repeat purchases, and increase engagement with your loyalty program.
Explore the advantages and use cases of mobile wallet marketing, and learn how to effectively integrate it into your strategy.
Explore the advantages and use cases of mobile wallet marketing, and learn how to effectively integrate it into your strategy.
Table of contents
What is mobile wallet marketing?
Mobile wallet marketing is a strategy that involves the use of mobile wallet applications to engage and interact with customers.
These applications, such as Apple Wallet, Google Wallet (formerly Android Pay), and Samsung Wallet, store digital versions of credit cards, debit cards, loyalty cards, tickets, gift cards, and coupons on a user's mobile device.
As the usage of Apple Pay or Google Pay has doubled in North America and tripled in Europe over the last five years, the mobile wallet market size is poised for further growth — and so is the potential of this channel for businesses.
How it works:
- A customer completes a transaction, such as buying an event ticket or making a first purchase.
- A prompt appears, encouraging the customer to add a card (e.g., ticket, membership card, coupon, etc.) with a QR code to their digital wallet.
- The user adds the card to their mobile phone and can access it by double-pressing the lock button on their device.
- Upon arriving at a physical location, the user can present and scan the card to access its benefits.
When do you need mobile wallet marketing?
You should consider mobile wallet marketing if you want to:
- Attract more foot traffic. You can bring more customers into your physical store by providing exclusive in-store discounts or promotions via mobile wallet.
- Boost repeat purchases. Loyalty cards and special offers stored in mobile wallets can encourage customers to return and shop more frequently.
- Increase the average basket size. Digital coupons and bundled offers can incentivize customers to buy more items during each visit.
- Improve customer experience. Mobile wallets ensure customers don’t forget their event tickets, reduce checkout time, and improve overall satisfaction with your brand.
- Combine the digital and retail experience. When you enable customers to redeem digital coupons, loyalty cards, and passes directly from their mobile wallets in a physical location, it’s easy to trace the impact of your digital efforts on on-site traffic.
- Enhance customer engagement with your customer loyalty program. Customers often forget or lose physical loyalty cards. Having the card in their mobile wallet ensures they always have it at hand.
All in all, mobile wallet marketing is a powerful strategy for building long-term relationships with your customers.
7 Use cases for mobile wallet marketing
Many are unaware that mobile wallets can be used for more than just storing digital payment information — they actually have a multitude of other practical applications.
Event tickets
More and more people prefer digital event tickets over printed ones, expecting brands to offer convenient mobile solutions.
However, most businesses only use PDF files with QR codes for digital ticketing — a step in the right direction but not enough for a seamless customer experience. Users still need to locate and upload these files at the event entrance, which often causes delays.
You can avoid all that friction by allowing your customers to add tickets right to their mobile wallets. Once saved, this opens up an instant, one-way communication channel with your customers:
- Send reminders before the event directly to their screens.
- Notify users instantly about any event changes like time or location updates.
- Trigger real-time updates based on factors like geolocation, online actions, purchase history, or time.
Example: One of the most common examples of digitizing event tickets is storing boarding passes in a mobile wallet. Every airline now offers the option for customers to add their boarding passes to their mobile wallets after checking in.

Agenda
This is a great use case for businesses that offer scheduled services to clients. From vacation rentals to medical appointments, mobile wallet functionality helps to keep clients aware of their upcoming reservations and associated details.
Example: Airbnb users can add their upcoming trips to Apple Wallet, allowing them to access trip dates and the location address even without an internet connection, which is often crucial for travelers.

But you don’t have to be an Airbnb host to offer such functionality to your clients. The ability to add agenda items to mobile wallets can be useful for a wide range of service providers:
- Hotels and resorts: guests can store their booking details, check-in times, and room numbers.
- Airlines and railways: passengers can keep track of flight/train schedules, boarding passes, and gate/platform information.
- Healthcare providers: patients can save appointment reminders, clinic addresses, and doctor details.
- Car rental services: customers can store rental confirmations, pickup locations, and return times.
- Restaurants: diners can save reservation details.
- Spas centers: clients can store appointment times and treatment details.
- Tour operators: travelers can store tour itineraries, meeting points, and guide contact information.
- Education providers: students can save class schedules, exam dates, and campus maps.
- Professional services: clients can store appointment times for consultations with lawyers, accountants, or other professionals.
Loyalty cards
Physical loyalty cards are becoming obsolete. When users forget their cards — which happens too often — they need to spell out their email or phone number, which adds unnecessary friction to the checkout process.
Instead, consider offering a loyalty card through your app or, even better, through a mobile wallet. This way, users won't need to wait for an app to load, rely on an internet connection, or deal with app downtimes.
When users arrive at your store, they can easily access their loyalty program benefits by simply scanning the card stored in their mobile wallets.
Example: IKEA offers a convenient way to access its reward program and add loyalty points from purchases. After spending hours shopping at IKEA, customers greatly appreciate not having to search for a physical loyalty card, especially when their hands are full.

Digital coupons
Mobile wallet marketing is not just for driving repeat business; it can also attract first-time customers.
Say a user comes across your digital campaign but hesitates to buy without first trying the product. You can prevent losing new business and drive visitors to your physical store by simply allowing users to add a discount coupon directly to their mobile wallets.
While boosting your in-store traffic, you’ll also be able to attribute those conversions to specific digital campaigns, bridging the gap between your digital marketing efforts and in-store performance.
Example: Target often offers mobile coupons that customers can easily redeem in-store.

Here are a few ideas for integrating discount marketing with mobile wallet capabilities:
- Feature one-time percent-off coupons in your digital advertising campaigns.
- Use QR code marketing on physical banners to promote discount offers.
- Advertise buy one, get one free (BOGO) deals that customers can activate through a mobile wallet coupon.
- Provide free gift coupons to incentivize repeat purchases.
In each campaign, simply include an option to add these coupons to the mobile wallet, and you're all set.
Gift cards
It’s in your power to make gift giving and receiving an even more enjoyable experience with digital wallet marketing.
Digital gift cards offer a convenient way to send congratulations or express gratitude. While these are typically sent and accessed via a company's app or email, the ability to store a gift card in a mobile wallet is a step up.
Recipients can easily access and use the gift card without searching through messages or facing activation issues due to poor internet connections.
The smoother the experience you provide, the higher the chances that a person will become your repeat customer.
Example: Gift cards by Root Pretty, a beauty product brand, can be added to Apple Wallet in one click.

Digital wallet passes
A digital pass is a convenient way for a business to provide access to a physical location like a gym, coworking hub, hotel room, etc. without issuing a physical card.
With a digital wallet pass, you’ll simplify access to your location and significantly improve visitors’ experience. Customers will no longer need to carry multiple cards in their physical wallets or worry about losing them.
Most importantly, digital passes can be easily updated in real time — so your customers always have relevant access permissions without needing to replace a physical card.
Example: Hyatt has launched digital room keys that integrate with the iPhone's wallet. Guests can unlock their rooms or any other hotel amenity that requires key access (e.g. the elevator, gym, spa, or business center) by tapping their phone or using a paired Apple Watch.
This is a huge plus for families — they’ll be able to store keys under a single pass without needing to keep track of multiple physical keys. And if a guest is granted late checkout or decides to extend their stay, the reception can update their access permissions remotely.

Digital documents
Mobile wallets aren’t just for contactless payments and passes — they also offer a convenient way to store important documents digitally.
This is especially useful for any business that needs to provide customers with access to essential documents like insurance policies, medical records, academic certificates, etc.
Example: During the pandemic, many people stored their vaccination certificates in their mobile wallets. Besides the convenience of always having the document on hand, users could also receive reminders to book their next vaccination appointment.

How to implement a mobile wallet marketing strategy
Luckily, you don’t need any technical skills to tap into the benefits of mobile wallet marketing.
1. Choose the right mobile wallet marketing platform
To enable digital wallet marketing, you need a platform that will allow you to set up your cards for Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, integrate with your point of sale (POS) system, manage your messages, and keep track of your mobile ROI.
Brevo handles all these requirements and more. You can digitize your vouchers, loyalty cards, tickets, coupons, and passes with Brevo Wallet. Once connected to your customers' digital wallets, you can send notifications and updates directly to users’ lock screens or instantly update the wallet visuals with relevant information in real time.
Brevo’s mobile wallet app is part of a comprehensive marketing suite designed for enterprises, offering a built-in CRM, multichannel campaign management, email and SMS campaigns, web and mobile push notifications, and messaging API capabilities, and integrations with ecommerce platforms among others.
Discover the full range of features available with our Enterprise Solution.

Example of a VIP card in Brevo Wallet
2. Create your mobile wallet passes
In the app, you should be able to design custom mobile wallet cards for any purpose. When creating one, keep it simple and functional:
- Stay on brand by using your brand colors and logo.
- Include only essential information such as the cardholder's name, purpose of the card, expiration date, and a QR or barcode.
- Optionally, add your company's contact details or direct links if possible.
Remember, your primary goal is to offer users a seamless and hassle-free experience without overwhelming them.
3. Complete the user experience with push notifications
Once a person has added your pass to their mobile wallets, you can reach them with push notifications. Use this opportunity to send reminders, updates, and personalized offers right to their home screen.
Stick to these best practices to make the most of your pass notifications:
- Set up triggers for specific actions or events, such as approaching an event date, nearing a promotion expiration, or reaching a loyalty milestone.
- When you update your card due to the changes in policies, event dates, credentials, etc., display a notification on the customer’s home screen to keep them informed.
- Include a clear call-to-action in your notifications to prompt immediate engagement, such as redeeming a discount, visiting a store, or participating in an event.
- Avoid overwhelming users with too many notifications and consider the optimal times for sending messages based on your audience's habits.
Once added, digital wallet notifications can’t be turned off. To maintain a positive user experience, you’ll need to resist the temptation to send frequent messages. Reach out only when you have important updates or valuable information to share with your customers.
4. Promote your mobile wallet pass
Now, it's time to encourage people to add your digital pass to their mobile wallets.
Display the functionality across all your marketing channels, including your company website, email newsletters, social media profiles, and in-store signage to effectively spread the word.
Across your campaigns, explain the benefits of adding your digital pass to mobile wallets.
And of course, don't forget to provide a clear call-to-action (CTA) prompting users to add the pass to their mobile wallet whenever they access your digital card.
5. Monitor, analyze, and optimize
Within your mobile wallet marketing platform, you should have access to insights on pass adoption, usage patterns, and redemption rates.
This is your opportunity to gauge your returning customer rate and measure the usage of your loyalty program (if that’s what you’re linking to with your digital pass). Use this data to measure the impact of your ecommerce marketing strategies on in-store traffic and optimize your campaigns for better performance.
Drive repeat business with mobile wallet marketing
Ready to get started with mobile wallet marketing?
With Brevo’s Wallet, you can bring your customer relationships to the next level. Keep your brand front and center with digital passes and push notifications delivered directly to your customers’ lock screens.
Discover how Brevo’s Enterprise Solution will help you streamline your digital marketing and in-store experiences with omnichannel solutions.