Tuesday was an exciting day for digital marketers. For the first time in the history of the digital age, consumers will have the opportunity to purchase products at the point of sale using a watch. I couldn’t help but imagine the marketing possibilities this brings, given the amount of data the Apple Pay technology will produce in the near future.

Apple has publicly stated that Apple Pay is a contactless payment technology. Instead of storing your credit card number on your device, Apple Pay creates a Device Account Number that is encrypted and stored in a dedicated chip inside the iPhone. Despite the fact that Apple never stores this information on their servers, this unique ID could potentially be used within the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud for brands to improve customer retention, increase sales, and personalize conversations they have with their customers. 

At Bluewolf, we believe the best way to understand how to market to consumers is to become one. In the spirit of the following use cases, imagine that you are a loyal Sephora customer who visits a number of different retail locations primarily on weekends.

1. Leverage Predictive Intelligence to trigger sends based on purchase history at the point of sale.
   The ExactTarget Marketing Cloud offers digital marketers the opportunity to create data extensions that produce dynamic personalized content for predictive campaigns. Apple Pay data would be an excellent candidate for this interaction. As a loyal Sephora customer, this use case provides the brand unique opportunities to improve customer retention and increase sales per transaction, enabling Sephora to deliver timely, personalized messages that speaks directly to you.
2. Create Mobile Push campaigns segmented by Device Account Number to drive traffic to retails stores customers frequently shop at.
   The Mobile Push channel app within the ExactTarget Marketing Cloud empowers brands to engage with consumers through location-based push notifications when consumers are within their targeted geographic range. Apple Pay data allows a brand like Sephora to send coupon push notifications based on historical purchase data to specific customers when they are in vicinity of a retail location.
3. Gauge customer satisfaction in real time through Journey Builder by launching an SMS customer experience survey, sent immediately after an in-store purchase.
   Creating journeys in ExactTarget Marketing Cloud gives retailers like Sephora unique opportunities to touch their subscribers at every step in the customer lifecycle in real-time. Analytic data from Apple Pay could potentially provide the brand insights into what time of day customer service is weakest, in order to improve the in-store experience, or to drive traffic during slow periods.

At this time, one can only speculate whether or not the Apple Pay technology will allow brands to connect with their consumers on a deeper level. Given this extraordinary development in the digital experience consumers have with brands, imagining the possibilities results in disruptive digital marketing strategy and execution.

Attend Salesforce ExactTarget Marketing Cloud Connections 2014 to learn more about how the features of ExactTarget Marketing Cloud can help you reach your unique marketing goals. Engage with Bluewolf at the digital marketing event of the year.

Have an opinion on Apple Pay’s impact on marketing strategy? Connect with AJ, tweet @JaumePrimero.