India’s largest retailer Big Bazaar has become the latest to support in-store payments from mobile wallet service MobiKwik at more than 240 locations, following in the footsteps of WHSmith India... More
Retail
CU Wallet adds offers and promotions
CU Wallet, a mobile payments platform developed for US credit unions, is to integrate merchant offers and promotions through a partnership with Relevant Solutions... More
WHSmith India to accept MobiKwik mobile payments in 55 stores
More than 17m users of Indian mobile wallet service MobiKwik will be able to make in-store payments at 55 WHSmith India stationery and book stores, the first time the service has been available for payments in physical locations... More
France’s Teleshopping network tunes into PowaTag mobile payments
More than 400,000 viewers of France’s largest television shopping network will soon be able to buy products featured on the TV channel by holding up their smartphone to the screen to scan audio tags that will then redirect them to the item’s online page where they can make a purchase using their stored payment information... More
Apple Pay UK launch set for July 14?
Apple is reportedly planning to launch Apple Pay in the UK on July 14... More
“Highly interested” Canadians ready for mobile payments
Some 14% of Canadian consumers say they are highly interested in making in-store mobile payments and 11% are also interested in using a wearable device such as a smartwatch to do so, research from payment services supplier Tsys has revealed... More
Researchers unveil breakthrough in weaving NFC chips into clothes
Researchers from Nottingham Trent University (NTU) have invented a method of embedding NFC chips into yarns which are then woven and knitted to make fabrics for clothing... More
Beacons guide Hong Kong airport passengers
Passengers at Hong Kong International Airport are being guided by 50 beacons installed across Terminal 1 as part of a pilot with SITA Lab... More
US$2.7tn mobile wallet market by 2020
The global market for mobile wallets will reach US$2.7tn by 2020, “driven by the proliferation of smartphones, tablets, mobile internet, strong governmental support for cashless transactions and the convenience offered by mobile payments,” Global Industry Analysts says... More
Amazon’s voice-driven home shopping device available for pre-order in the US
US consumers will soon be able to reorder supplies and control their home appliances using Amazon Echo, the connected device that uses voice recognition to complete spoken commands to shop, play music, read the news and more... More
CUA credit union reports rising interest in redi2PAY HCE mobile payments service
The number of customers using CUA’s redi2PAY HCE mobile payments service more than 35 times per month was about three times higher in March 2015 than it was six months earlier, and the number of customers using mobile payments five to 14 times per month was up 63% for the same period, the Australian credit union has revealed... More
Alibaba and Ant Financial invest nearly $1bn in Koubei mobile commerce platform
Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba and Alipay parent Ant Financial have each invested RMB3bn (US$483m) into Koubei, a joint venture that will let consumers order and pay for local services in China using their smartphone, “with an initial focus on the food and beverage segment”... More
Canadian carriers sign up for independent Suretap platform
Canadian carrier Rogers has spun off its Suretap NFC mobile wallet service as a separate company, with the brand now operating independently and open to other carriers... More
Crunchfish unveils touchless storefront using gesture recognition
Swedish gesture recognition firm Crunchfish has developed an interactive screen that can be placed in shop windows to encourage passersby to browse deals, read reviews and compare products with a swipe, push or grab of their hand... More
International retailer to install NFC shelf edge labels in 250 stores across Europe
Imagotag, a subsidiary of electronic shelf labels supplier Store Electronic Systems (SES), has entered into an exclusive agreement in Germany with an unnamed “leading international retailer” to install its NFC e-paper displays in 250 stores across Europe... More
Billing System brings OTI NFC readers to Japan
Payment service provider Billing System is to offer On Track Innovations’ (OTI) suite of NFC readers and devices to Japanese retailers, vending machine operators and taxi companies... More
Starbucks expands Mobile Order & Pay
Starbucks has rolled out its Mobile Order & Pay service to 21 more states in the southern and central United States... More
Gimbal aims to turn any Bluetooth Low Energy device into a beacon
Mobile location and proximity services provider Gimbal has begun licensing its Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) beacon firmware to enable almost any device with BLE to act as a beacon — including ATMs, jukeboxes, access points, vending machines and more... More
Facebook expands buy button pilot
Facebook has extended its ‘buy’ button pilot to US retailers using the Shopify commerce platform... More
Wegmans to add loyalty card to Apple Pay
Wegmans will be among the first US supermarkets to offer customers the ability to redeem discounts while using Apple Pay... More