In a strategic move designed to bridge the gap between digital rewards and everyday consumer spending, loyalty platform Wildfire Systems and mobile wallet infrastructure provider Badge have announced a major partnership. The collaboration, officially unveiled at the high-profile Money20/20 USA event in Las Vegas, aims to push merchant offers and cashback rewards directly to shoppers through the payment methods they already use and trust on a daily basis.

By combining their respective technologies, Wildfire and Badge intend to empower merchants to extend their existing loyalty and rewards programs across additional digital payment tools. This integration is engineered to seamlessly reach consumers during both online shopping sessions and traditional physical store purchases, creating a unified ecosystem for retail savings.

The new business agreement effectively connects Wildfire’s extensive network of more than 50,000 merchants with Badge’s robust digital wallet infrastructure. Through this technical bridge, offers from top-tier retailers can now be integrated directly into widely adopted mobile payment solutions, including Apple Wallet, Google Wallet, and Samsung Wallet.

How the Wildfire-Badge Partnership Will Function

The operational mechanics of the partnership are designed to be frictionless for both the end consumer and the participating retailers. When a consumer adds a rewards pass to their preferred mobile wallet, the pass dynamically surfaces personalized cashback and savings offers originating from merchants within Wildfire’s expansive network.

As promotional campaigns evolve, inventory changes, or new deals become relevant to the user, the digital pass updates automatically without requiring manual user intervention. Furthermore, consumers will receive timely push notifications alerting them whenever fresh offers become available.

The system also incorporates location-aware technology. When a shopper finds themselves in physical proximity to a participating merchant’s brick-and-mortar store, the digital pass can trigger location-based reminders to ensure the consumer remembers to take advantage of available savings. When the shopper is ready to complete a transaction—whether browsing on an e-commerce website or checking out at a physical retail register—the relevant offer is prepared and presented directly within their mobile wallet interface.

On the back end, attribution and transaction tracking are managed entirely by Wildfire’s platform. This architecture ensures that neither the individual merchants nor the loyalty program operators need to build separate, costly infrastructure to support wallet-based offers.

“Our partnership with Badge gives clients a way to extend their existing rewards programs into mobile wallets, meeting their customers where they are to discover and use offers,” said Wildfire CEO Jordan Glazier in a written statement regarding the collaboration. “In turn, our merchant network gives Badge’s clients a steady stream of relevant offers to put in front of their customers.”

The architecture of the system is intentionally dual-purposed to cater to the realities of modern omnichannel retail. For online purchases, the targeted offer appears within the wallet application and is applied smoothly at checkout. For in-store purchases, the exact same digital wallet that a consumer taps against a payment terminal to settle their bill also carries the relevant cashback offer, effectively closing the loop between the payment moment and the broader rewards program.

What Wildfire and Badge Do with Retailers

To understand the broader market impact of this partnership, it is helpful to examine the core competencies of the two participating companies. Wildfire is a specialized commerce intelligence platform that provides critical retail media and rewards program services to major financial services and technology companies. Its prestigious client roster includes household names such as Visa, Citi, and RBC. Meanwhile, Wildfire’s underlying merchant network features high-profile retail brands including Best Buy, Macy’s, and Ulta Beauty.

According to market research data from Digital Commerce 360’s Top 1000 Database—which tracks North America’s largest online retailers by their annual ecommerce sales—these participating merchants occupy prominent positions within the retail landscape. Best Buy ranks No. 8 in the Top 1000 Database, Macy’s holds the No. 18 spot, and Ulta Beauty is ranked at No. 37.

On the other side of the partnership, Badge operates as a specialized platform that enables its clients to transform standard mobile wallets into programmable tools designed to drive deeper consumer engagement and increase sales.

“The next evolution of mobile wallets is about what happens beyond the transaction,” said Badge CEO Eric Senn, highlighting the strategic vision behind the alliance. “By combining our technology with Wildfire’s merchant offer network, we can help our clients put relevant savings opportunities directly into consumers’ hands, whether they’re shopping online or walking into a store.”

As the retail and financial technology sectors continue to look for innovative ways to capture consumer attention and loyalty in a crowded marketplace, the integration of programmable mobile wallets and expansive merchant networks represents a significant step forward in making rewards more accessible, contextual, and immediate for shoppers everywhere.