It’s a common trope in TV and movies that when all paths to the preferred solution are blocked, a well-placed bribe can open doors in ways that other methods can’t. The same can work in retail when brands want to bring new users to their shiny new platforms.
That’s the strategy Samsung is using to get more holiday shoppers using Samsung Pay. 9to5Google reported that as of Friday (Nov. 20), owners of select smartphones who register new accounts with both Samsung Pay and Samsung’s full website will automatically be rewarded with a $50 Best Buy gift card. Users only need to add a single credit card to their profiles to qualify, but they only have until Dec. 31 to do so.
The move indicates that Samsung is throwing a great deal of its industry weight behind the U.S. launch of its mobile payments platform. Mobile World Live reported in September that the carrier had already processed $30 million in transactions since launching in South Korea in August. Add on top of these figures the fact that 10 percent of Samsung Pay users use the platform for purchases every day; suddenly, a U.S. launch backed by a generous gift card rewards program could serve Samsung very well.
In a September blog post, Injong Rhee, executive vice president of Samsung Electronics and head of Samsung Pay, explained that things are still moving too fast to get a clear view of how users are feeling about and using the platform but what signs are there seem promising.
“Although the details on Samsung Pay usage are constantly being updated, the response we’ve received so far has been beyond our expectations,” Rhee said. “We knew Samsung Pay would be a gamechanger in the mobile payments industry, and now with the user data, we are seeing the greater impact it is having on consumer behavior and on the lifestyle of our customers.”
And no matter the customer’s lifestyle, there aren’t many who will turn down a free $50 gift card.
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