SHAREPay: Pays You Back With Every Tap

From penguins in a desert ski park to instant loyalty points, how MAF is revolutionizing mall payments

Visiting Money20/20 in Bangkok and Token2049 in Dubai, I squeezed in a detour to Dubai’s indoor ski resort… Penguins and all! Yes, penguins in the desert, a surreal mascot for Majid Al Futtaim’s (MAF) ambition: blending real-world retail with cutting-edge FinTech. MAF isn’t just stacking stores; it’s weaving a full-stack payments-and-rewards ecosystem into the mall itself. The idea is straightforward but effective: tap your way through shopping and instantly earn (or spend) points, with no receipts or separate apps needed.

The goal is “frictionless payments” and “alternative finance options” wrapped into the shopping trip.

I saw my friends there using SHAREPay. It’s a digital wallet built on top of your existing credit and debit cards. MAF members can link up to 10 cards into one virtual “MAF card”. Then, wherever you see the SHARE logo, a single tap pays your bill and triggers loyalty. It’s like Europe’s Curve, but laser-focused on the local malls. Behind the scenes, Visa and Apple tokenization ensure each tap is secure and instant, no scanning required. In practice, that means buying groceries at Carrefour, catching a movie at VOX, or grabbing a coffee in the mall. And yes, even your luxury purchases at Gucci or Montblanc are eligible. In every case, a SHAREPay tap seamlessly applies points whether you’re-restocking basics or buying a birthday Rolex.

Merchants are not forgotten in the journey

• With in-app tokenization and bank partnerships: settlements are faster and the checkout smoother 
• Gone are the days of lost slips: payment data flows straight into the loyalty system

In the background, this data helps MAF anticipate customer needs and tie together experiences across its brands. It’s a glimpse of the vertical FinTech trend. What’s that here? Simply put, it’s building payments, loyalty, and credit directly into one physical ecosystem.

I’ll give you a partnership example where the credit card is part of the party: In May 2025, MAF introduced the SHARE Credit Card issued by banking partner Emirates NBD as a natural extension of its ecosystem. It offers up to 8% back in SHARE Points at over 5,000 MAF stores (Mall of the Emirates and City Centre malls, Carrefour, VOX Cinemas, Ski Dubai, Magic Planet and more). Points from that card are redeemable instantly, same-day, right back in the same malls, reinforcing how the ecosystem pays for itself. This shared credit card is subtle marketing: every swipe at a café or boutique earns points you can immediately burn on the next shopping trip.

In short, SHAREPay and the SHARE credit card show what happens when loyalty and payments converge. Instead of isolated reward programs, Majid Al Futtaim has stitched earning, spending, and financing into one journey. It’s the kind of pragmatic innovation that matters: something shoppers actually use. More broadly, it speaks to a FinTech shift where retail players build their own payment platforms. By making the mall its own bank and rewards engine, MAF is turning customer loyalty into a live wallet and that is a trend worth watching.