This approach reinforces/enhances the relationship with the consumer and was a perfectly natural evolution of an already successful program. They haven’t yet included location (“checking in”) or promotions/couponing, but it would be a natural vehicle to start rolling out those kinds of capabilities, if that was desirable.

I think the savvy retailers will continue to leverage these types of approaches – you could easily envision a retailer like Whole Foods card/app that enables payment, grocery list management, couponing, directions, recipes, and so forth …. all enhancing the customer relationship.