Apple has begun selling mobile POS provider Square’s US$49 contactless readers in its US stores as well as online... More
Retail
Amazon Echo adds Domino’s pizza orders
US customers of pizza chain Domino’s can now speak their orders into Amazon’s Echo voice-driven home shopping device, which is supported by virtual assistant Alexa... More
Visa launches cross-marketing network for coupon-free digital rewards
US merchants can now send targeted offers and rewards to their customers that can be redeemed at other merchants’ locations via Visa Commerce Network, a new service launched by Visa that eliminates the need for coupons at the point of sale. More
LG Pay White Card will store multiple cards for use in-store and ATMs
LG has developed an electronic ‘LG Pay White Card’ that will let users register multiple credit cards onto a single piece of plastic for in-store payments and ATM withdrawals... More
Visa reports 250% growth in UK contactless transactions
Contactless now accounts for one in seven Visa transactions across the UK, up from one in 25 a year ago, the payment network has revealed, with contactless payments growing 250% year-on-year and 60% of transactions occurring outside London... More
Otto Group to offer PowaTag mobile payments
German retail giant Otto Group has partnered with Powa Technologies to offer its customers mobile payments through PowaTag, a service that lets consumers make purchases by capturing ‘PowaTags’ using their mobile device... More
Starbucks sees rise in US mobile transactions
Some 22% of all US transactions in Starbucks during December were made using mobile apps, up from 21% in November 2015, the company’s Kevin Johnson reported during the coffee chain’s first quarter earnings call. “Over one million customers in the US used Mobile Order & Pay capability in the month of December and those customers averaged approximately five mobile orders in the month,” Johnson added... More
Apple Pay leads US mobile payments market
Apple Pay is “overwhelmingly the share leader” in point-of-sale mobile payments across the US despite uptake remaining relatively low, the latest statistics from Piper Jaffray’s Apple Pay adoption tracker show... More
Barclaycard reports 164% increase in contactless transactions for 2015
The value of payments made using a Barclaycard contactless card increased by 164% in 2015 compared to the year before, the UK card issuer has revealed, while the average transaction value increased by 26% to £8.65 (US$12.40)... More
UK contactless payments hit £1bn record in November 2015
Contactless payments in the UK hit a record £1.02bn (US$1.45bn) in a single month for the first time in November 2015, increasing from £287m in January that year, The UK Cards Association reveals. The number of contactless purchases in November totalled 128m while the average transaction value increased to £8.03, up from £7.72 in October... More
One in six Koreans use mobile to pay in-store and online
One in six South Korean consumers (15.8%) have used a mobile to pay for in-store or online purchases, research by The Bank of Korea shows... More
Rite Aid deploys 4,500 Bluetooth beacons
US pharmacy chain Rite Aid has deployed more than 4,500 Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacons across its US stores to send personalised messages to its customers... More
Carta and NXP to enable NFC payments and offers on wearables, mobile and connected devices
PARTNER NEWS: NXP and transaction technology provider Carta are to integrate Carta’s digital transaction platform with NXP’s NFC capabilities, with the aim of enabling NFC payments, loyalty and offers to be deployed across a wide range of mobile, wearable and connected devices... More
NXP and Guala add NFC security to wine and spirit bottle caps
PARTNER NEWS: Leading bottle cap supplier Guala Closures Group is working with chip maker NXP to develop NFC-enabled closures for wine and spirit bottles that will allow consumers to check the product’s authenticity and whether or not the beverage has been tampered with. More
Google to reward Android Pay users for in-store purchases
Android Pay users across the US will soon be able to earn rewards such as Google Store credit, Google Play Music subscriptions and Chromecast devices when using the mobile payment service for in-store purchases... More
Diebold takes NFC to the self-checkout
ATM manufacturer Diebold has demonstrated a mobile-enabled self-checkout concept that would let shoppers use their mobile device to scan items they want to buy while shopping in-store before checking out at a self-service POS terminal with NFC. More
Dubai to get payment system based on mobile phone numbers
Consumers across Dubai will soon be able to make in-store and online payments using their mobile phone number following an agreement between payment solutions providers Quisk Middle East and Network International... More
UK consumers warm to biometric identification
More than half of UK consumers (54%) are willing to authorise payments using biometric technology, research from Experian shows... More
NanoPay acquires Mintchip digital currency
Mintchip, the digital currency developed and field tested in an NFC payments pilot by The Royal Canadian Mint, has been acquired by Loyalty Pays Holdings Corporation, a subsidiary of NanoPay... More
Nine in ten US Apple Pay users have made an in-store mobile payment
More than nine in ten users of Apple Pay in the US (91%) have now made an in-store payment using a credit card stored on their mobile device and two thirds (67%) have made an in-app transaction, a survey by Phoenix Marketing International has found... More