Sources: NFC Times, NFC World, MasterCard

San Francisco: At the annual Google I/O conference, Google announced some features prefacing further changes likely be seen to their current wallet. Among the announcements was the ‘Save to Wallet’ Application Programming Interface (APIs) for payment cards, which offers a “one-stop-shop for holding everything you’d carry in a regular wallet,” says the search giant.

With the cloud based API shoppers can virtually ‘clip’ and ‘snip’ offers directly from a website and save them to their Google Wallet to be used for discounts on future purchases. After a coupon is seen, just click the “Save to Wallet” button; easily added to any webpage by pasting the Javascript. To redeem a coupon all a customer has to do is scan their phone by 2D NFC barcode or show the sales cashier the coupon by mobile screen.

“Customers redeem offers by showing the offer code at the point of sale or by tapping their NFC enabled phone. The point of sale recognizes the offer code and applies the offer to the basket,” says Google.

Retailers benefits:

POS integration, Marketing, Web Integration

Buyer benefits:

Simple, No inbox clutter, Reminders& Notifications, Convenience, Organization

This innovation highlights one of the important aspects of Mobile Shopping; visible benefits for both the merchant and the user and it is nice to see Google’s strategy moving in that direction.