ABI: 85% of POS terminals to support contactless payments in 2016

85% of terminals shipped worldwide will be contactless-enabled in 2016, driven by increased proliferation of contactless cards and, especially, rapid adoption of NFC-enabled cell phones, ABI Research predicts.

ABI Research

“Contactless has the potential to change the way we pay for goods completely, significantly reducing time spent queuing at the point of sale,” says ABI senior analyst Craig Foster.

As well as retail points of sale, contactless has advantages in the vending machine sector, says ABI, because:

  • The increased speed and simplicity of check-out go hand-in-hand with the very essence of the vending machine — to provide goods quickly and conveniently.
  • The fact that small-value transactions — typically under $25 in the US — do not need to be authenticated by signature or PIN entry is very appealing to vending machine operators.

“Contactless technology is also in the very early stages of adoption in ATMs: rather than inserting the card, a customer waves it in front of the machine and enters a PIN,” adds ABI’s M2M practice director Sam Lucero.

In 2010, only about 10% of total POS terminal shipments included some form of contactless technology, according to ABI’s Cellular-enabled POS Terminals, ATMs, and Vending Machines report.

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One comment on this article

  1. I come to realize the whole point-of-sale experience will have to be revolutionalized to truly support the full capabilities of NFC.

    In concept retailing for example, there is no need for cash stations with cash registers and payment terminals – the entire transaction can occur from a NFC enabled floor display or poster with the NFC-enabled phone.

    One element I see missing in m-commerce discussions is the role of fulfillment. I believe many retailers and current self-checkout systems are making the mistake of not seperating the transaction process from the fulfillment process in their next generation point-of-sale architecture.

    For example, do we still need the waiter/waitress to go to a central station to process payments or can we now allow people to reserve seatings and making payments at the table with a NFC interface.

    Do we still need “payment terminals” when we can embed an NFC interface into the retail fixtures to initiate the transaction?

    In 2016, I think most people will be laughing at the concept of a “payment terminal” being introduced…

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