Data ‘R’ Us: Alibaba, JD.com seek to lock in merchant loyalty with new services — Reuters — “One of the first firms to join an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd programme that provides years of consumer shopping history, snack food chain, Bestore Co Ltd plans to link facial recognition technology with the e-commerce giant’s account data by the year’s end. For customers opting to have their facial data in Bestore’s systems, that means shop assistants will be able to check on what food they like the moment they enter one of its stores.”
In-store
Contactless payments overtake chip and pin in the UK
Contactless payments usage has grown 30% in the UK over the past year to become the most popular card payment type for in-store transactions, Worldpay reports — and the growth is partly driven by an “astonishing” rise in consumer adoption of mobile payment services... More
Amazon moves into in-store payments in India
Amazon is entering the in-store payments market in India with the launch of ‘Amazon Smile’ QR codes that will enable shoppers to make purchases in shops... More
Taiwan to provide mobile payment adoption incentives
Taiwan outlines measures to promote mobile payment usage — Focus Taiwan — “Premier Lai Ching-te on Tuesday urged government agencies to earmark spending to subsidize transaction fees in a way that makes the use of mobile payments for in-store purchases more attractive to consumers… The government has set itself the target of 90% of mobile phone users using mobile payments by 2025, a major increase from the current level of 13%.”
Bank of America and PayPal partner to enable in-store payments and account linking
Bank of America and PayPal partner to enable in-store payments and account linking — Bank of America — “Bank of America will partner with PayPal to tokenize Bank of America cards for customers wishing to use PayPal for in-store purchases, across MasterCard and Visa portfolios in the US. This will support PayPal’s forthcoming NFC mobile wallet experience to enable in-store tap-to-pay purchases and reflects Bank of America’s open wallet strategy.”
Chinese millennials rush to pay by mobile in stores
More than eight in ten Chinese millennials (85.6%) use in-store mobile payments at least once a week compared to 44.7% of US millennials, research released by branding agency Labbrand reveals... More