The main reason for Walmart’s decision to cancel its Scan & Go mobile self-checkout project last year was high levels of shopper theft, rather than low levels of consumer adoption, a former Walmart executive has revealed... More
Ting introduces ‘Skip the Slip’ legislation to phase-out paper receipts in California — Assemblymember Phil Ting — “Assemblymember Phil Ting (D-San Francisco) today introduced AB 161, Skip the Slip legislation that makes electronic receipts the default practice when making a purchase. Businesses in the state would have to provide customers e-receipts by 2022, unless a hard copy is specifically requested… Committee hearings are expected to begin in the spring.”
Walmart is expanding its Check Out with Me service to all its 3,000+ Supercenters across the US “just in time for the holidays”... More
Walmart launches Check Out With Me, a new service designed to save customers time — Walmart — “A Walmart associate scans a customer’s items with the Check Out With Me mobile device, swipes their credit card and provides them with a receipt – printed or electronic options available. Customers just pay and go. It’s as simple as that.”
Enabling customers to scan items in the aisle as they shop and then check themselves out and complete the payment process all from their mobile phone holds multiple benefits for retailers aiming to improve the in-store experience, cut costs and increase revenues, a new white paper from Rambus explains... More
Supermarket checkout designed to scan entire shopping basket trialled in London — Evening Standard — “Each shopping item has a tiny ‘radio frequency identification’ chip embedded in it… The customer first places their items on a scanning platform, which displays the full list on a screen. They open a smartphone app and tap the device on a reader to deduct payment from an account linked to a card app, such as Apple Pay or Android Pay, and are then emailed a receipt.”
Fintech startup Flux partners with Barclays for itemised receipts — Techcrunch — “Flux, the London fintech startup founded by former early employees at Revolut, has announced a partnership with Barclays in the UK that will see it trial its itemised receipt technology with 10,000 of the bank’s customers… On the merchant side, the trial also sees Flux partnering with Barclaycard, which will provide the ability for merchants, via integration through their point-of-sale devices, to issue digital receipts to any customer.”
Employees at UK bank Barclays and Barclaycard’s London office have begun piloting a new payment concept that allows them to buy low-value goods in the staff restaurant by scanning the barcode on the items using their smartphone and completing the purchase “with a single click” without needing to visit the physical checkout. More
Drivers across the Canadian city of London can now pay for parking at more than 3,100 spaces across the city — including all municipal parking lots and on-street spaces — using a mobile app that lets them “seamlessly search, pay for and top up parking from their phone or tablet”. The service is being rolled out by the City of London. More
Restaurant chains Eat and Bel-Air are piloting a service in their London locations that delivers real-time receipts to a customer’s mobile banking app by linking to the purchases they make using their bank cards at the retailer’s point-of-sale terminal. The service is also being trialled by UK challenger bank Monzo. More
Motorists across Canada can now pay for fuel and car washes as well as accumulate loyalty rewards using a mobile payment service that is being rolled out by fuel retailer Imperial Oil to 1,000 Esso-branded gas stations nationwide. More
Business travellers will soon be able to make in-store purchases at select retailers and restaurants inside three US airports and have their expenses automatically submitted on their behalf through the point-of-sale system so that they “don’t need to worry about creating an expense claim down the line”. More
Canada’s Scotiabank has replaced the NFC SIM-based mobile payments service inside its My Mobile Wallet app with a host card emulation (HCE) based solution, the bank has confirmed to NFC World... More
Amazon employees in the US are testing a physical grocery store format that will use technology developed for self-driving cars to allow consumers with a dedicated mobile app to walk in, pick up the items they want and leave without going through a traditional checkout... More
Financial institutions can now select Inside Secure’s Visa Ready MatrixHCE solution as a means of rolling out mobile payment solutions within a matter of weeks... More
South African consumers will soon be able to make payments using an NFC sticker on the back on their mobile phone via a service launched by mobile financial services provider MobiCash and mobile payments platform Boloro... More
US supermarket chain Walmart has begun rolling out its QR code-based mobile payment service in Arkansas and Texas. Walmart Pay is now available in all 480 Walmart stores across Texas and at more than 110 locations in Arkansas. More
Drivers of corporate fleet vehicles will soon be able to pay for fuel using a mobile payment service that identifies the site and pump using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons and authenticates the vehicle using NFC. More
Motorists across the US can now pay for their fuel at the pump at more than 6,000 ExxonMobil gas stations using Apple Pay and the fuel retailer’s Speedpass+ mobile payment app. The oil and gas company plans to expand the app’s availability to more than 8,000 locations by mid-year. More
A mobile payment service that lets taxi passengers pay via their credit or debit card is now available to all of London’s 22,500 black cabs. To date, 15,000 of the city’s taxi drivers have signed up to the service. More
