Ticket holders attending concerts and other events at the Red Rocks Amphitheatre in Denver in the US state of Colorado can now gain entry to the entertainment venue by scanning their palm rather than their mobile ticket or ID... More
Retail
More than three quarters of cashless transactions in Germany, Austria and Switzerland are now contactless
More than three in four cashless payments made in Germany (77%), Austria (80%) and Switzerland (82%) are now contactless — a rise of more than 35 percentage points from an average of 40% across the three countries in June 2019, according to figures published by Nordic payments processor Nets... More
Google Pay goes live in Austria
Google Pay has officially launched its app for owners of both Android smartphones and Wear OS smartwatches in Austria. Austrian customers of neobanks and fintechs including Curve, Monese, N26, Revolut and Viva Wallet have been able to use Google Pay via their mobile banking app since November 2020. More
Three in four Germans want cashless payment options at every point of sale
Three quarters of German consumers (74%) want to be able to make digital payments at all shops, restaurants and other retail outlets, with that percentage rising to 87% among 18- to 29-year-olds, according to a survey by the Bitkom digital association... More
ST white paper explains how brands can use NFC to add value to their products
KNOWLEDGE CENTRE: NFC can be used to add value to an array of products that combine a main unit with a range of accessories or consumables, such as coffee machines and power tools, and to a wide variety of devices that are shared among multiple users, such as gym and laboratory equipment, ST explains in a new white paper available to download from the NFCW Knowledge Centre... More
Carrefour opens checkout-free store in Dubai
Consumers in Dubai can now use an app to gain access to Majid al Futtaim’s Carrefour City+ store in the Mall of the Emirates, select the products they want to purchase without needing to scan them and pay for them on their mobile phone without interacting with staff or using a checkout... More
Two in five US consumers still cite cash as their preferred payment method
Two-fifths of US consumers (40%) still prefer to use cash and just under 40% of US businesses (39%) maintain a cash-only policy for purchases of less than US$20 “despite the availability of technology-driven forms of payment such as credit cards, debit cards and mobile wallets,” a survey by a division of WSFS Bank has found... More
UK Post Office lets customers verify their identity when collecting deliveries with digital ID app
Consumers can now prove their identity when picking up parcels and other deliveries at post offices across the UK using a digital identity app rather than a paper document such as their passport or driving licence... More
Consumer Brands Association unveils contactless delivery standard
The US Consumer Brands Association (CBA) has released an operational standard that will enable shippers, carriers, logistics companies and retailers to implement contactless pickup and delivery workflows across their supply chains... More
Prada to leverage NFC to authenticate fashion products
Consumers purchasing bags, purses, shoes and accessories manufactured by Italian fashion house Prada will soon be able to authenticate a product and access information about how and where it was made by scanning an embedded NFC tag with their mobile device... More
UK to increase contactless transaction limit to £100 from October
The UK will begin rolling out a new £100 (US$137) spending limit for contactless payments from 15 October 2021, UK Finance has announced... More
Apple Pay used for more than 90% of US mobile wallet debit transactions in 2020
The number of debit transactions completed using a mobile wallet in the US rose by 51% year-on-year to approximately 2bn in 2020, with “a noteworthy” 92% of those transactions being made with Apple Pay and just 5% with Google Pay and 3% with Samsung Pay, according to research published in the 2021 Debit Issuer Study... More
Woolworths augments in-store shopping experience with NFC tags
Customers in Woolworths stores in Cape Town and Johannesburg can now browse, virtually test and order beauty products for home delivery by tapping in-store NFC tags with their mobile phone... More
Chip shortages could prevent 1bn payment cards being issued, ABI Research predicts
Disruption in global chip supply is threatening the issuance of up to 1bn payment cards over the next 18 months, with 347m cards at risk of not being issued in the second half of 2021 and up to 740m in 2022 because of “significant chip shortages”, according to an ABI Research forecast... More
Swedish sportswear brand adds NFC zippers to enhance customer engagement
Swedish sportswear brand Houdini has added an NFC-enabled zipper pull to its latest One Parka waterproof coat that lets consumers who purchase the garment connect with the brand and access use and care guides, support services and other digital features with a tap of their NFC smartphone... More
Oman to make it mandatory for all merchants to accept cashless payments
All merchants and other commercial enterprises across the Sultanate of Oman will be obligated to offer customers the option of making cashless payments for goods and services from 1 January 2022... More
Juniper forecasts contactless card transactions will total US$2.5tn globally in 2021
The total value of contactless card transactions worldwide will reach US$2.5tn in 2021, up from US$1.7tn in 2020, Juniper Research predicts. The researchers also forecast that card payments will retain “the majority share of overall contactless transaction values at 79% in 2021”. More
Polish mobile payments service lets users make NFC payments direct from bank account
Consumers in Poland will soon be able to use their Android NFC device to make tokenized contactless payments at the point of sale (POS) directly from their bank account via their mobile banking app without needing a debit or credit card... More
Swiss mobile payments provider to roll out cross-border payments in 2022
Swiss consumers with a Twint digital wallet will be able to make digital payments with their credit card or directly from their bank account in other European countries from 2022, the Swiss mobile payments service says... More
Japanese university trials face payments for users wearing a mask
Students and staff at Kindai University in the Japanese city of Osaka are testing a biometric payments service that enables them to authenticate payments with their face even when they are wearing a mask... More