Brian Pham might only have launched Litecard in 2023, but the momentum behind his wallet-led marketing platform is anything but rookie. In just over a year, Brian and the Litecard team have landed partnerships with some of the biggest names in retail, including L’Oréal, Dan Murphy’s, The North Face, Bonds, and Penfolds. Before Litecard, Brian worked across ecommerce and marketing tech platforms, leading large-scale Shopify, Salesforce, and HubSpot integrations. That firsthand experience with the pain points of CRM and loyalty programs is exactly what led him to spot a gap in the market: brands needed a better way to connect with customers, without relying on yet another app or crowded inbox. His answer? A frictionless, hyper-personalised mobile wallet experience that’s reshaping loyalty, offers, and retail media in real-time.
Brian’s approach is gaining traction fast. Litecard was recently featured in SmartCompany’s roundup of nine Aussie startups that raised $40.5 million, and recently teamed up with Konnectryx to scale digital wallet adoption globally. He’s shared his vision for wallet-led marketing on podcasts like Day One and The Ecommerce Edge, where he unpacked why digital wallets are the next big ecommerce marketing opportunity.
Skip the App
App fatigue is real and attention spans are short. That’s why Brian argues that brands need to stop obsessing over downloads and start thinking more natively. He points out that many apps require frequent updates, log users out too often, and create unnecessary friction. That’s why so many retailers are starting to explore alternatives that don’t rely on customers installing yet another app.”
That’s where Brian saw a gap in the market and created Litecard. It enables brands to deliver mobile wallet passes that can be instantly added from an ad, email or SMS. No app download, no login, no account creation. Customers get immediate access to personalised offers or loyalty perks, and brands reduce friction at every step.
Most retailers are seeing a 1% or 2% usage rate on their apps. Whereas what we’re seeing is sort of a 20 to 30% usage rate for mobile wallet passes.
By eliminating the friction and streamlining the experience, brands like Dan Murphy’s, The North Face, and Barkers NZ are already seeing higher engagement and faster conversion, especially for time-sensitive offers and in-store interactions.
Make Your Wallet Pull Its Weight
Rather than thinking of wallets as static storage, Brian urges marketers to see them as a dynamic, ownable media channel.
“A brand looks at a wallet and goes, maybe I should have a mobile wallet membership card or an offer I can give to customers… but not a lot of brands look at this and go, ‘How many push notifications and user journeys can I create in my CRM for my category?’”
With L’Oréal and Penfolds, Litecard has consistently outperformed traditional CRM tactics. In campaign after campaign, it’s broken records for engagement and conversion. Customers can click an ad, save an offer to their wallet, use it in-store, and then be retargeted,without needing email or SMS at all.
And the kicker? Brands can do this with little to no personal data. “A lot of the time, we don’t even store any PII. Just a member number or a hexed value. That’s it,” said Brian. It’s a lightweight, privacy-conscious way to personalise the customer journey—while getting the performance of a full-blown campaign.
If They Can’t See It, They Won’t Use It
According to Brian, most loyalty programs fall down at the final hurdle. Not because the value isn’t there, but because customers don’t know what they have.
You don’t know how many points you have, how many offers you have, when they expire, unless you log in online, and you’re not doing that on your lunch break when you’re rushing into a store.
Litecard’s work with Barkers in New Zealand shows how simple visibility changes can drive engagement. Customers see real-time loyalty updates, colour-coded tier changes, and expiring offers, all inside their wallet. Instead of relying on a static barcode, the pass dynamically updates. If a customer moves up a tier, their wallet reflects it instantly, creating a more personal and rewarding experience.
For customers striving to reach new reward levels, this visibility becomes a motivator. And for brands, it’s a chance to increase second and third purchase rates without relying on yet another email blast.
The Wallet Is Quietly Becoming Retail’s Most Powerful Touchpoint
What Brian and Litecard are showing us is that the digital wallet isn’t just a payment tool. It’s a loyalty interface, a media platform, and a personalised communication channel all rolled into one. The smartest ecommerce operators aren’t waiting for apps to bounce back, They’re already leaning into wallet-led strategies that meet customers where they already are, cut through the noise, and unlock real results.
As the battle for attention heats up, the brands that win will be the ones that remove friction, not add to it. With Litecard, the wallet might just become your most effective CRM weapon yet.
Want to hear how Brian is helping brands like L’Oréal and Dan Murphy’s ditch clunky apps, break CRM records, and turn digital wallets into high-performing marketing channels? Listen to the full episode here.
