Mastercard has unveiled a new feature for its Qkr... More
Mastercard adds bar tab feature to Qkr! mobile payments app
Retail
China’s central bank tests digital currency for in-store payments
The People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has conducted trial runs of a prototype cryptocurrency it has been developing since 2014 that could be used “to buy anything from noodles to a car”, The Straits Times reports... More
Rambus unveils Unified Payment Platform for mobile payments and loyalty
PARTNER NEWS: Rambus has unveiled a mobile payments platform that will allow retailers to launch mobile payment and loyalty services that securely store and manage a variety of payment cards, as well as gift cards and loyalty points, to enable consumers to pay with credit, points and coupons in a single transaction at the point of sale... More
Barclaycard adds contactless payments to watches and fashion jewellery
Barclaycard’s bPay contactless payment technology is to be embedded into a range of high street jewellery and watch brands across the UK through new partnerships with fashion jewellery retailer DCK Group and payment technology provider for the watches and jewellery industry Tappy Technologies... More
Gulf Oil unveils Gulf Pay for mobile payments and special offers at fuel stations
Customers at Gulf Oil fuel stations across select New England and New York markets in the US are to pilot a new mobile payment service that will enable drivers to navigate to the nearest station, pay for fuel at the pump, receive exclusive offers and purchase products inside the convenience store... More
NPCI, Mastercard and Visa unveil standardised QR code mobile payments for India
Indian consumers can now make QR code-based mobile payments using BharatQR, a “low cost, interoperable mobile acceptance solution” backed by the Indian government and developed by Mastercard, Visa and National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)... More
Google Home owners get voice commands for grocery shopping
Owners of the Google Home speaker powered by Google Assistant can now buy groceries using voice commands... More
Fashion retailers test smart mirrors for mobile payments
Fashion retailers Ralph Lauren and Rebecca Minkoff are testing smart dressing-room mirrors that will soon allow shoppers to “wave their phones in front of the mirror and make a purchase using Apple Pay or Android Pay”, Bloomberg reports... More
IBM’s Watson integrates Visa Token Service to enable tokenized payments on connected devices
IBM is to integrate Visa Token Service into its Watson IoT cognitive technology platform to enable payments to be embedded into “any device connected to the Internet of Things (IoT)”, with all of IBM’s Watson IoT Platform customers gaining access to Visa payment services via IBM’s cloud service — rather than businesses needing to be approached on a one-by-one basis... More
Jameson offers prizes with special NFC bottle
Drinkers of Jameson Irish Whiskey can access prizes and giveaways by tapping their phones against an NFC tag placed on a special edition bottle marking St Patrick’s Day in Ireland... More
Paytm targets 10m Indian mobile payments merchants
Indian mobile wallet provider Paytm wants to increase the number of stores where its QR code-based service is available from 3.5m to 10m... More
Australian banks drop Apple Pay fee request to focus on iPhone NFC access
The group of Australian banks arguing for the right to collectively negotiate with Apple over the introduction of Apple Pay in the country have dropped their request to jointly arrange how to “pass-through” additional fees Apple imposes on its mobile payment service, and will now focus solely on gaining access to the NFC functionality within the iPhone... More
Mobile to account for 28% of online retail spending in Europe this year
More than a quarter of all online retail sales across Europe (27.9%) will be done using a mobile device in 2017, with UK consumers spending more money in-store, online and in-app using mobile devices than any other Europeans, research released by VoucherCodes.co.uk and the Centre for Retail Research (CRR) shows... More
Australia’s retailers join the banks in their battle with Apple Pay
The Australian Retailers Association (ARA) has come out in support of the group of four Australian banks seeking stronger negotiation powers with Apple over the introduction of Apple Pay in the country, saying they believe access to the NFC functionality in the iPhone would allow retailers to provide “a richer and more convenient customer experience”... More
3bn digital banking users by 2021
Nearly 3bn users will have access to retail banking services through smartphones, tablets, PCs and smartwatches by 2021, Juniper Research reveals, up 53% from 2017... More
Apple Pay most popular mobile payment service among US retailers, survey finds
Apple Pay has the largest percentage of supporting US merchants with 36% accepting the mobile payment service today, up from 16% last year, research released by Boston Retail Partners (BRP) reveals... More
Eight in 10 US consumers would prefer an Amazon Go automated store to traditional shopping
Some 84% of US consumers say they would enjoy shopping at an Amazon Go automated store more than a traditional grocery store, but a fifth think they would lose out on traditional shopping experiences by doing so, the results of a survey of 1,000 shoppers released by packaging solutions provider Shorr Packaging show... More
Starbucks customers get voice ordering as mobile orders and payments continue to grow
US consumers can now place orders from coffee giant Starbucks by speaking into the Starbucks iOS mobile app or to Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa. The move comes as the company reveals that mobile orders made up 7% of all its US transactions in the last quarter, with mobile payments now accounting for 27%. More
One fifth of global consumers have made an in-store mobile payment as China leads the way
Nearly one fifth of global consumers (18%) have made an in-store mobile payment in the past six months, representing an increase of 10% from the same period in 2014, research released by trade body Mobile Ecosystem Forum (MEF) reveals. Chinese consumers lead the way, with 38% of them having paid with their phone at the point of sale — nearly double the global average. More
PayPal’s mobile payments volume sees 55% increase in 2016
Mobile payments accounted for a third of PayPal’s overall payment volume during the fourth quarter of 2016, the company’s CEO Dan Schulman has revealed, with the total volume of mobile payments increasing by 55% over the course of last year. More