Sionic Mobile, with its channel leading ION mobile commerce platform, and The Pinnacle Corporation (Pinnacle), the leading supplier of automation technology to convenience retail and petroleum industries, announced during the annual NACS Show the companies will integrate their solutions to launch a robust mobile loyalty and payments platform for fuel retailers. The combined solution is among the first in the industry to leverage Bluetooth beacons inside the store and at pump islands to facilitate cloud-based payments and instant rewards for smartphone consumers.
The Pinnacle-ION solution helps convenience stores (c-stores) eliminate high-cost credit card fees on fuel purchases and encourages repeat business by providing customers instant rewards based on in-store checkout amounts. Using Bluetooth beacons for pump authorizations, customers can quickly and easily pay for fuel with a few taps on their phones. Leveraging fully encrypted and tokenized mobile payments, the process is more secure than traditional card swipe methods, protecting both the user and fuel retailer against fraudulent activity. The beacons are also used to deliver compelling, relevant promotions to customers boosting in-store traffic and driving high margin sales.
“Our priority is to deliver modern tools that automate the broad spectrum of c-store operations,” said Drew Mize, Pinnacle’s chief operating officer. “We continue to evolve our approach to ensure our services and products meet the current demands of fuel retailers and their consumers. We are pleased to partner with Sionic Mobile to integrate Pinnacle’s Palm POS™ platform with their next-generation loyalty program that combines mobile payments and instant rewards in one application, making it easy for operators to deliver an exceptional customer experience, while reducing costly transaction fees. We look forward to working with the team at Sionic Mobile in delivering this proven, innovative tool to our c-store customer base.”
Consumers simply download the ION Rewards app (available in both the App Store and Google Play store), create an account and then use their smartphones to pay for fuel at the pump. Users receive an instant, ten cents per gallon savings on every fuel purchase at any ION-enabled fuel retailer. ION Rewards users also earn one to three percent in rewards on every in-store, non-fuel purchase.
“We are proud to partner with Pinnacle to help convenience stores better connect with nearby consumers, while reducing operating costs,” said Ronald Herman, CEO of Sionic Mobile. “We understand the increasing fees associated with credit and debit transactions, along with decreasing in-store sales are two of the biggest challenges facing c-store operators. ION is the only loyalty application that completely eliminates credit card fees on fuel purchases and rewards customers instantly based upon checkout amounts and payment types.”
