Twitter is planning to launch its new Buy button in the first quarter of 2015, VentureBeat reports, to let users make a purchase directly from a Tweet... More
Trial
Tesco tests PowaTag mobile payments
UK supermarket giant Tesco is conducting a one week test of Powa’s PowaTag mobile payments technology at its Dean Street store in London. To promote the service, a free lunchtime Meal Deal was offered on 13 and 14 October to the first five hundred shoppers to download the PowaTag app and use it to pay with their mobile phone. More
Facebook picks Stripe for buy button
Stripe “is the sole Facebook payments partner” for its ‘buy’ button trial, Re/code reports... More
Tesco pilots QR payments
UK-based supermarket giant Tesco is trialling a mobile payments service based on QR codes, Marketing Week reports... More
McDonald’s to launch NFC payments in the US this month?
Fast food giant McDonald’s will begin accepting NFC mobile payments in US stores on 15 September, an internal notice sent out to franchisees and seen by 9to5Mac suggests... More
London Underground to accept NFC payments
Users of mobile network operator EE’s Cash on Tap NFC payments service will be able to use their mobile phone to pay for travel on the London Underground, Docklands Light Railway and London Overground services from 16 September, when Transport for London (TfL) introduces the ability for passengers to pay for travel using contactless cards... More
Westpac trials HCE mobile payments in New Zealand
Westpac has begun a host card emulation (HCE) pilot in New Zealand, enabling customers’ credit and debit card details to be securely stored in the cloud and then used at the point of sale to make mobile payments on their Android NFC device... More
Japan Airlines combines beacons and smartwatches to improve customer service at airports
Japan Airlines staff at Tokyo’s Haneda airport are being provided with smartwatches that work in conjunction with Bluetooth Low Energy beacons, to give management a way to assign staff more efficiently and respond more swiftly to customer requests. More
UK city to run NFC, QR and BLE shopper marketing pilot
Proximity commerce specialist Proxama has partnered with the Association of Town and City Management (ATCM) and Norwich Business Improvement District (BID) to run a shopper marketing pilot in the UK city of Norwich... More
Alipay tests virtual credit card
Chinese online payments giant Alipay is testing a mobile app based virtual credit card service called Xinren Bao that features customised credit limits based on a user’s shopping history and a 38-day interest-free period on all purchases, Marbridge Consulting reports... More
Yapital tests fingerprint payments
Retailer-owned mobile payments provider Yapital is testing the use of fingerprint biometrics to replace PIN entry when paying by smartphone... More
Air France lets passengers board planes with NFC
Air France, Orange, SITA, Toulouse-Blagnac Airport and RESA have teamed up to provide an NFC boarding experience, allowing a select number of passengers to move through the airport — from entering the building to boarding the plane — by tapping their Orange NFC smartphone at dedicated terminals... More
Chick-Fil-A tests mobile payments
Fast food chain Chick-fil-A has begun a mobile payments pilot in the Triad area of North Carolina... More
Digicash raises €2.2m to expand NFC, QR and BLE payments platform
Luxembourg-based Digicash Payments has raised €2.2m to expand its mobile payments platform on a “national and on an international level.” The service supports transactions via NFC, QR and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and has been adopted by four local banks... More
French retailer uses PowaTag to create 10,000 virtual shops, major UK chains to follow
French fashion retailer Comptoir des Cotonniers is using a platform developed by Powa Technologies to turn posters, billboards, magazines, cafe table tops, postcards, flyers and clothing into ‘virtual boutiques’ that let consumers order and pay for goods with their mobile phone... More
John Lewis backs tech startups
Upmarket UK department store chain John Lewis has chosen iBeacon, smart label and in-store digital engagement start-up firms to join JLAB, its first technology business incubator... More
Sberbank to launch HCE payments in Russia
Russia’s Sberbank, Europe’s third largest bank with more than 100million customers, has begun piloting NFC payments in Moscow using embedded secure elements... More
Google Glass to add payments?
Google Glass wearers will soon be able to make payments from their Google Wallet account, by simply saying “send money”, Techcrunch reports... More
Credit Mutuel to test mobile wallet
French bank Credit Mutuel-CIC is to pilot a mobile wallet in the Boulogne-Billancourt area of Paris from May 17, Les Echos reports, enabling consumers to make payments via NFC or QR in around 100 stores... More
TfL tests NFC for London Underground ticket payments
Transport for London (TfL) is testing payments via NFC phones for use on the tube and the overground rail network and is piloting contactless card payments with some 5,000 volunteers... More