Google Wallet In India Comes With A First-To-Market Gift Cards Integration Powered By Pine Labs

*        Pine Labs’ market-leading presence in powering brand Gift Cards combined with Google’s tech prowess set to boost customer engagement for brands.

*        Deliver a frictionless usage experience for consumers to manage their Gift Cards journey from within the Google Wallet app.

*        Empower brands to improve customer experience and build long-term engagement with their customers.

Earlier this month, Google launched its much-awaited Google Wallet™ app in India. Leading fintech company Pine Labs today shed more light on the close collaboration with Google Wallet to enable a seamless integration of Gift Cards on the product.

The ‘power of choice’ associated with e-gifting appeals to young consumers and therefore brands in India are constantly looking to cater to this important and growing consumer base. Many exciting Gift Cards use cases such as issuing refunds, credit notes, and promotional offers have emerged as growth drivers which offer brands the opportunity to foster customer loyalty and build long-lasting engagement.

The Gift Cards market in India is expected to increase from US$7.6 billion in 2023 to US$15.7 billion by 2028, as per a report by Research and Markets.[1] A frictionless Gift Cards usage experience enabled by this exclusive partnership between Google Wallet and Pine Labs will provide unprecedented ease and convenience to existing and new users and will eliminate the complexity around usage. Google Wallet users will be able to seamlessly store and manage their Gift Cards journey from within the app and will be intuitively reminded to use it at the point of purchase.

“Pine Labs is delighted to partner with Google India to enable Gift Cards integration with the Google Wallet app. In recent years, we have witnessed a seismic shift in the way merchants have embraced digital modes of payments. 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.

Highlighting the significance of this launch in bringing new levels of convenience for Android users across the country, Ram Papatla, GM & India Engineering Lead, Android at Google, said, “The arrival of Google Wallet in India marks an important milestone in Android’s India journey, bringing innovative and convenient experiences to simplify peoples’ daily lives. We are delighted to partner with many of India’s top brands to offer a comprehensive solution that helps you securely access and manage your everyday essentials. From boarding passes to loyalty, gift cards, and event tickets to public transport passes – they’re there when you need them.”

Pine Labs' issuing business offers end-to-end capabilities to businesses across diverse industry verticals to issue, process, distribute, and manage prepaid cards. With a market-leading presence in India, the business is now expanding its footprints in Southeast Asia, Australia, USA, and the UAE.

Google Wallet is a trademark of Google LLC.

About Pine Labs

Pine Labs is a leading merchant commerce omnichannel platform operating across India, Middle East, and Southeast Asia. Pine Labs’ tech-first approach to digital payments and focus on simplification at the front end aims to help many businesses embrace fintech products at scale.

In digital payments, our online payments cloud-based software Plural represents a one-stop payments destination across channels. Plural is designed to deliver secure and frictionless online payment experiences to the end user, powered by an advanced tech stack that can augment an existing online business or build an all-new e-commerce payment setup from the ground up.

Our Issuing business is powered by Qwikcilver – Qwikcilver offers a cutting-edge, full-stack, end-to-end technology service solution in the Pre-paid Transaction Management, Gift Cards, and Sales/ Distribution Space, with a strong presence in multiple countries and live service engagements with leading brands and major customers from the Retail, Hospitality and Airline Industries, across the following geographical  regions; South Asia - India, South East Asia and the Far East - Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines,  Middle East and Africa - Dubai, Abu Dhabi, South Africa, Europe - Luxembourg and Czech Republic, Australia, New Zealand and Hawaii in the United States of America, at  the present moment.

In consumer app, Fave is a fintech platform for the next generation of consumers, providing smart payments and savings, while empowering merchants with a loyalty solution to grow and engage with their customers in a whole new way.