Employees of French retail chain Monoprix are testing an automated self-service store that uses AI-based product recognition technology to enable them to select and pay for their products without going through a checkout... More
Retail
Russia paves way for introduction of biometric payments
The Russian government is expected to adopt a law that will enable Russian consumers to use face and voice recognition to authenticate in-store payments in shops, cafes and other retail outlets by the end of 2020, Izvestia reports... More
Philippe Starck designs NFC payments ring
Iconic designer Philippe Starck has created a smart ring that can be used to store payment cards and transport passes, make contactless payments, and transfer business and ID information... More
PBOC distributes digital currency to consumers via red envelope lottery
Consumers in the city of Shenzhen are being offered the opportunity to win one of 50,000 ‘red envelopes’ containing 200 digital yuan (US$29.65) that they can spend at any of more than 3,000 retail outlets in the city that now accept China’s central bank digital currency (CBDC)... More
Krispy Kreme pilots contactless doughnut vending machine
Krispy Kreme customers in Charlotte, South Carolina in the US, can now use their mobile device to buy selected variety packs of doughnuts from an automated cash-free vending machine that is in operation 24 hours a day... More
S&P reports on the mobile payments market in China
While Alipay and WeChat Pay have by far the largest number of mobile payments users in China overall, younger and more affluent consumers are more likely to use less well known services such as Du Xiaoman Pay and QQ Wallet, an in-depth market analysis by S&P Global has found... More
Digital wallet user base to increase to 4bn by 2024
The number of digital wallet users globally will increase from 2.3bn in 2019 to 4bn in 2024 and global non-cash transactions will grow to nearly 1.1tn in 2023 from 708.5bn in 2019, according to the World Payments Report 2020... More
Chick-fil-A adds NFC check-ins at university campus locations
Students using Chick-fil-A’s mobile ordering service at the fast-food chain’s on-campus outlets at 15 universities in the USA can now check-in to pick up their order by tapping an NFC tag installed on posters inside the restaurant... More
Walmart redesigns its stores for contactless shopping
US retail giant Walmart has unveiled a new store design that leverages mobile wayfinding and self-checkout kiosks to create “a digitally enabled shopping experience”... More
German cooperative bank pilots NFC kiosks that turn branches into one-stop service points
Customers of Volksbank Raiffeisenbank in Germany are taking part in the pilot of a self-service terminal designed to drive new revenue streams by making a wide range of additional services available in bank branches... More
BCG reports on the mobile payments market in Africa
Kenya and Ghana have the highest rates of mobile payment use in the world after China and, ultimately, there could be as many as 850 million mobile payment users in Africa conducting transactions worth US$2.5tn to US$3tn a year, according to a report from the Boston Consulting Group (BCG)... More
Pizzahacker rolls out QR self-serve ordering
Diners at the Pizzahacker restaurant in Mill Valley, California, can now use a self-serve feature to place their order on their mobile device by scanning a QR code and selecting what they want to eat and drink on the restaurant’s mobile-enabled ordering page... More
Mastercard to add merchant logos to transaction records
Mastercard users will soon be able to more easily identify and verify whether payments recorded on their online statements are legitimate as the card issuer starts linking merchant logos to any transactions a user has made with participating companies... More
IDC: One in two wearables to include contactless payments support
Global shipments of wearable devices will reach a total of 396m units this year and increase to 637.1m in 2024, with the proportion of those offering support for contactless payments set to rise to nearly 50% by the end of the year, International Data Corp (IDC) predicts... More
Google Pay adds bill splitting, movie bookings and scratchcard rewards in Singapore
Google Pay users in Singapore can now divide bill payments between groups of family and friends, book cinema tickets and receive rewards via virtual scratchcards... More
Austrian gin maker authenticates limited-edition bottles with NFC and blockchain
Buyers of a premium limited-edition gin distilled in Austria will be able to verify a bottle’s authenticity and track how many remain available for sale by using their NFC phone to scan a crypto-enabled NFC chip fitted to the label... More
Strong customer authentication requirements could cost European retailers €100bn in lost sales
The introduction of the 3D Secure 2.0 (3DS2) protocol for strong customer authentication (SCA) could cost European retailers more than €100bn (US$116.7bn) in online sales in 2021, payments consultancy CMSPI predicts... More
Edenred adds Apple Pay for UK prepaid cardholders
Holders of Edenred prepaid incentive and rewards cards in the UK can now add their card to Apply Pay and make mobile and online payments for food, fuel, transport, parking and corporate transactions with their iPhone, Apple Watch or other Apple Pay-enabled device... More
Amazon lets customers pay with their palm at two US retail stores
Customers shopping at two Amazon Go outlets in Seattle, USA, can now gain access to the convenience stores and pay for their purchases by simply placing their palm over a contactless palm scanning device installed at the entrance... More
Samsung lets German customers link any bank account to Samsung Pay
Samsung device owners in Germany can now link a personal account at “almost any” German bank to Samsung Pay and then use a virtual Visa debit card to make mobile payments in-store... More