The news: Bilt will bring its customer experience platform to merchants through Verifone’s points-of-sale (POS), per a press release.

Bilt cardholders can find their Neighborhood Rewards on POS hardware at local merchants powered by Verifone. This fortifies Bilt’s ecosystem play, bringing its rewards directly into the local environments of its renter cardholder base. 

The customer experience platform connects more than just rewards to retailers’ POS—it also lets customers do things like order a rideshare back to their apartment through the POS. 

This play mirrors a similar strategy by Block, which integrated Square sellers and Cash App users with Neighborhoods, to beef up its ecosystem’s network rewards. 

Why this could work: Bilt’s card largely targets Gen Zers and millennials—young professional renters. This demographic segment desires card-linked offers: 38.7% of millennial consumers are more likely to switch to merchants offering product-specific, card-linked discounts and rewards, per a PYMNTS survey. 

Implications for SMBs: Leveraging a comprehensive customer experience platform within the POS could help smaller retailers win young professionals’ spending. 

Signposting their participation in rewards systems like Square Neighborhoods or Bilt’s Neighborhood Rewards could help foster more local loyalty, especially in walkable cities where educated renters congregate.