Google Wallet partners with Pine Labs to help manage gift cards within app

Merchant commerce platform Pine Labs, on Thursday, partnered with Google Wallet to integrate its gift card offerings on Google’s app. This partnership comes nearly three weeks after Google announced the launch of its digital wallet application in India.With the partnership with Pine Labs, Google Wallet users will be able to store and manage their gift cards journey within the app. The application will nudge customers to use it at the point of purchase. “A frictionless gift card usage experience enabled by this exclusive partnership between Google Wallet and Pine Labs will provide ease and convenience to existing and new users and will eliminate the complexity around usage,” the Bengaluru-based company said in a statement.The company said use cases for gift cards include refund issuances, credit notes, and promotional offers for brands in the country. “Considering the huge Android user base in the country, we anticipate a sharp jump in the usage of gift cards as more retailers and brands will now look to leverage it in their omnichannel strategy to expand their customer base, improve customer experience, retention, and loyalty,” said Navin Chandani, president - issuing business, Pine Labs. The Google Wallet allows users to store their private information such as loyalty cards, transit passes, IDs, among others.