Kohl’s and Apple’s retail loyalty deal, announced on Wednesday (May 4), is a key step forward in mobile payment. Even though loyalty and CRM are essential kinds of apps to integrate into mobile payments, that’s not why it’s such an important step. The cool part here is Kohl’s integration, which makes it just about effortless for the shopper. Or does it?

Many of the proposed loyalty mobile payments efforts put a lot of onus — a.k.a. hassle, work, uncompensated labor, etc. — on the shopper. What Kohl’s has done — for anyone who already has a Kohl’s loyalty card, part of the chain’s Yes2You Rewards program — is to have the associated Kohl’s credit card treated like any other payment card from Apple Pay’s perspective. That makes it more of a loyalty/store card, but the result is the same: As easily as someone can use a Visa card in Apple Pay, the Kohl’s card will work and will automatically register frequent purchase points for that shopper.

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