Walgreens integrates its loyalty program with Apple Pay

Apple Watch owners, instead, can double-click the side button, pick their Rewards card, then hold their watch face up to the reader. Once you add your Balance Rewards digital card to the Passbook app in iOS 9 - a 60-second process - it's automatically linked to your Apple Pay account and you're good to make purchases. The Apple Watch is also supported. The companies said Balance Rewards members will be able to earn and redeem loyalty points or use discount coupons through Apple Pay.

It doesn't take long, and you'd have to slide an additional card or enter a phone number to manually pull up your rewards account even if you didn't use Apple Pay.

Walgreens announced on Thursday that the pharmacy chain has begun running its rewards program via Apple Pay.

Adding your Walgreens card is as simple as adding any other card-just open the Wallet app and manually add the details, or use your camera to scan in the number. Kohl's, Dunkin' Doughnuts, Panera Bread, and Wegmans have said they plan to support their loyalty cards in Apple Pay as well. You can link multiple cards and use whichever one you want.

In what could be an important step for mobile payment, Walgreens is expanding the Apple Pay functionality it provides customers. The process may be only slightly faster than swiping a card, but may be speedier overall since you don't have to dig around in your wallet or purse first to pull out the card in the first place.

Other stores are expected to integrate their loyalty programs into Apple Pay, but Walgreens, an early backer of the system, gets to boast that it's the first to do so.