Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt wants to tap into some of the success that competitor Pinkberry has seen from mobile payments with a planned update for its application that includes new loyalty and commerce functions.

Orange Leaf is planning on rolling out mobile payments and loyalty features to its iPhone and Android application by the second-quarter of this year. The new features will be powered by FIS and Paydiant.

“We see mobile payments as a significant trend that will continue to develop over the next couple of years,” said Karley Hofer, director of brand development at Orange Leaf, Oklahoma City.

“We believe mobile payments and a wallet are another way for us to ensure that the Orange Leaf brand remains relevant and makes life easy for our core customers, like teens and busy moms, as well as drive sales for our franchisees,” she said.

Orange Leaf operates 300 locations within the United States.

Bolstering loyalty?
Orange Leaf is adding payment, loyalty rewards and the ability to redeem rewards from its mobile app.

The idea is that the frozen yogurt chain can control more of the in-store experience within its own branded app with the updates.

The technology is cloud-based and stores consumer’s information securely.

Orange Leaf is the first brand to use this new mobile wallet feature from FIS and also works with the company to power its gift card efforts.

Orange Leaf previously launched its app in 2012 (see story).

The current app serves as a digital hub for the brand’s Ounce Back loyalty program. Consumers can also view maps, directions, nutritional information and see current in-store flavors via the app.

The chain also ran a mobile-based sweepstakes earlier this year to build up its loyalty program (see story).

A screenshot of Orange Leaf’s current app

Frozen rewards
Orange Leaf is the latest frozen yogurt chain to tap into mobile for building up its loyalty program.

Pinkberry rolled out mobile payments to its iOS app in November. The app lets consumers add money onto digital cards that can then be scanned in-store to pay for purchases (see story).

Yogurtland also launched a mobile app last year that integrates in-store features such as QR code scanning to let consumers find their favorite flavors (see story).

The move towards mobile for the frozen yogurt industry highlights the growing importance that merchants are putting on the medium to take loyalty programs digital.

“Orange Leaf represents a vanguard brand that will be enabling its client a powerful mobile engagement capability for payments and more through its my Orange Leaf app,” said Doug Brown, senior vice president and general manager at FIS Mobile Financial Services, Jacksonville, FL.

“We expect more retailers who find a mobile-centric branded experience of payments, social engagement and actionable loyalty to follow Orange Leaf’s lead – deploying branded payment and commerce apps to better know their customers,” he said.

Final Take
Lauren Johnson is associate reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York