Payments startup Drop has launched a mobile payments and loyalty solution that uses Bluetooth beacons to let shoppers order and pay from up to 200 feet away before picking up their purchase and leaving without having to wait in line at the point of sale... More
USA
Millennials more open to mobile payments
Among US and UK consumers who have not yet used a mobile wallet, 18-34 year olds are the most enthusiastic when asked about the potential benefits, research from JWT Intelligence has found... More
United Airlines to let passengers pay for airport food and drinks using award miles
United Airlines is to install more than 6,000 iPads across Terminal C of Newark Liberty International Airport to enable members of the airline’s MileagePlus reward scheme to use their award miles to pay for food, beverages and other airport amenities... More
Google Wallet adds refer-a-friend program
Google has introduced a refer-a-friend program to reward consumers with US$5 each time they introduce a friend to Google Wallet... More
SunTrust adds Apple Pay
SunTrust Banks is now offering Apple Pay to its clients and merchants, joining a long list of US banks already supporting the NFC mobile payment solution... More
US mobile payments to reach $142bn in 2019
US mobile payments volumes will grow from $52bn in 2014 to $142bn by 2019, according to a new forecast from Forrester... More
inMarket hits 18% of US mobile shoppers
Mobile in-store marketing solution provider inMarket’s iBeacon platform now reaches 31.5m monthly active consumers, the equivalent of 18% of all US mobile users, according to research conducted by Comscore... More
Bi-Lo adds Apple Pay
Bi-Lo Holdings, parent company of the Bi-Lo, Harveys and Winn-Dixie grocery store chains, has announced that it now supports Apple Pay in all of its 830 outlets in eight US states... More
SnapChat adds cash transfers
SnapChat and Square have teamed up to launch Snapcash, a service that builds on Square Cash to let SnapChat users send cash transfers to friends from within the photo messaging app... More
Apple Pay retailers release stats
Apple Pay accounts for 50% of tap-and-pay transactions at McDonald’s, which accepts “all payment products that leverage standard NFC”, according to a New York Times report... More
Softcard adds United MileagePlus cards
United Airlines and Chase are adding support for United MileagePlus credit cards to the Softcard mobile wallet... More
Survey: Contactless adoption requires security proof
Two out of three Americans would consider making mobile or contactless payments more often if they were proven to be secure, a survey of 1,000 US consumers conducted by Kelton Research for Gemalto has found... More
Softcard picks Muppet mascot for online advertising campaign
US carrier mobile payments venture Softcard has unveiled Tappy, a mascot designed by the company behind The Muppets that will be used initially in an online advertising blitz reported to be valued at US$1.5m. More
Visa CEO: We may not charge a fee for tokenization
Visa will not charge a fee to card issuers making use of its tokenization service until at least the end of 2015 and may or may not charge a separate fee for the service in the future, CEO Charles Scharf has revealed at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2014 Banking & Financial Services Conference... More
Brooklyn Nets launch mobile wallet
American Express has partnered with New York basketball team Brooklyn Nets to pilot Brooklyn eWallet, a digital payment solution integrated into the team’s mobile app that lets fans buy food and drink with their mobile phone at any event held at the Barclays Center arena... More
McDonald’s on mobile payments: We prefer to let our customers choose how they pay
McDonald’s sees accepting NFC mobile payments as part of its on-going customer service improvement remit, the fast food giant’s Anja Carroll has told NFC World+... More
Whole Foods reports 150k Apple Pay transactions
Whole Foods Market has processed more than 150,000 Apple Pay transactions since the mobile payment solution launched in October, the US supermarket chain has told NFC World+... More
HID reports on NFC healthcare pilot
A care worker tracking pilot that used a Medicaid-compliant NFC tag platform developed by HID Global has cut 30 seconds from the time taken for a carer to check in to a client’s location and resulted in a 100% authentication accuracy rate, the company reports... More
Starwood’s mobile keys go live
The Bluetooth-based mobile keyless entry solution unveiled by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide earlier this month is now live in 10 hotels in Beijing, Hong Kong, New York, Los Angeles and Doha and will be rolling out to Aloft, Element and W Hotels across the globe... More
Apple Pay boosts Google Wallet
Google Wallet has seen an uplift of 50% in transactions on a weekly basis since Apple Pay’s launch, with users almost doubling on a monthly basis “in the recent couple of months”, reports Ars Technica... More