Citigroup Inc. has launched a mobile-rewards application with Best Buy Co. Inc. that enables its cardholders to redeem ThankYou rewards, Citi announced Aug. 18.
The issuer’s free app runs on Apple Inc. iPhone or iPod devices and on smartphones that use Google Inc.’s Android operating system. Citi ThankYou cardholders may download the app from the Apple App Store or Android Market.
Cardholders who have the app may log in and browse the ThankYou Rewards catalog for Best Buy and other retailers’ products and redeem points for purchases on their smartphones or iPod devices, Citi said in a press release. They also can use the app to scan barcodes in Best Buy stores to redeem points for purchases.
ThankYou members also receive special discount offers through the app, Citi said.
Citi representatives were unavailable for an interview.
The application falls in line with what loyalty experts had been predicting.
“The Citi mobile app is answering the call from customers for flexibility and convenience, but, most important, [for] more utility from their points,” Kelly Hlavinka, managing partner of Colloquy, a Cincinnati-based loyalty marketing research and consulting firm, told PaymentsSource in an email.
Other card issuers will follow Citi’s lead to use mobile devices for loyalty-point redemption, Hlavinka said. “Consumers can access their personal contacts and resources from anywhere” using their mobile devices, she said. “They’re using any tools that are convenient, adapting quickly to whatever becomes available, and to stay in step; loyalty practitioners must do the same.”
As part of the launch, Citi ThankYou cardholders can get an unspecified number of rewards points when they download the app at the Best Buy Union Square store in New York from noon until 9 p.m. on Aug. 18. They may use the points immediately or for a future purchase, Citi said.
Citi is among the first to offer mobile-based rewards programs, as is Starbucks Corp. (
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