Wakefern Food Corp., the owner of grocery chains ShopRite and Fresh Grocers, is updating its sales systems in a mobile way with the addition of support for Chase Pay.

Meanwhile, the bank is continuing to expand the industries in which it makes an impression with its mobile payments as it competes with the other big names such as Apple Pay and Google Wallet. The partnership represents another step forward for the bank into the grocery industry and a significant move towards mobilization for the food brands.

“Our goal is to create a product that meets the needs of both consumers and merchants,” said Dina DeMerell, CMO for Chase Pay. “For merchants, we are helping reduce payments costs and create a seamless customer experience that works in stores, online and in merchant apps.

“For consumers, we want to introduce a payment experience that’s convenient, secure and rewarding, beyond just payment. From an industry and brand perspective, we are initially focused on businesses in everyday spend categories that can help drive relevance to consumers, awareness in stores, and repeat usage.”

Chase Pay
Chase Pay is a digital payment solution that allows customers with Chase Visa^® consumer credit and debit cards to purchase items conveniently and securely while earning rewards and offers. Chase Pay uses token technology that makes payments more secure for customers and helps minimize risk to businesses. It will also integrate merchant loyalty programs and offers to help deepen the customer relationship.

Wakefern will accept Chase Pay as a form of payment through ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer supermarket websites later this year. Chase Pay will be phased in next year at ShopRite and The Fresh Grocer store registers and through the ShopRite Mobile app.

Wakefern joins a host of merchants to accept Chase Pay, which is live on select merchant websites. Chase Pay will launch for mobile payment at participating merchant registers and a form of payment in select merchant apps later this year.

Third-party integration
Chase Pay, like many other mobile payment options, will be available through its own dedicated app later this year. But something that other banking apps are becoming increasingly aware of is the necessity of making those mobile payment options available through other third-party apps, such as a retailer’s dedicated app.

This gives the payment provider the largest amount of reach to get their payment option used by the most amounts of users. Chase is addressing this trend by allowing Chase Pay to be integrated into other apps, as well as a standalone app.

For example, earlier this year, Starbucks overhauled its mobile rewards program to include Chase Pay (see story).

Other brands such as Shell are planning on integrating Chase Pay as well (see story).

“Our customers will have another convenient, rewarding and secure way to pay at ShopRite and Fresh Grocer, first online and then later at the register and in the ShopRite app,” Ms. DeMerell said. “Chase Pay will continue to evolve with new features over time, so this is just the beginning of an exciting partnership and user experience.”