Starbucks is to begin accepting payments from customers wearing the new Microsoft Band smart bracelet... More
Starbucks to accept Microsoft Band wearable payments
App
Target includes Apple Pay in mobile app
MCX member Target has integrated Apple Pay into its mobile app but is not accepting payments via Apple Pay in its stores, the retailer has told NFC World+... More
Burger King to offer mobile orders and payments across the US
Burger King customers in the US will soon be able to order their meals ahead of arrival and pay for their orders using their mobile phone and a PayPal account... More
Starbucks claims a 90% share of the US mobile payments market
Starbucks accounted for more than 90% of all mobile transactions in the US last year, the coffee chain’s CEO Howard Schultz has revealed during a fourth quarter earnings call in which he also set out plans to continue to dominate the mobile payments space. More
Starwood Hotels picks Bluetooth for mobile room keys that work on smartphones and Apple Watch
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide has unveiled a mobile keyless entry system that will allow guests to use smartphones to unlock rooms using Bluetooth at 150 hotels around the globe by early 2015. The service will also be available via an Apple Watch app when the new wearable device ships next year, the hotel chain has told NFC World+. More
SK Planet to roll out Bluetooth beacons to 10,000 stores across Korea
SK Planet has launched a new Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) service in Korea that offers customers reward points and benefits directly on their mobile device whenever they enter a participating retail location. The BLE beacon-based solution is expected to be installed in more than 10,000 stores by next month. More
Fresh & Easy tests ATM rewards
Seventeen Fresh & Easy stores in Phoenix are piloting new machines from in-store ATM operator Cardtronics that offer customers discounts they can apply to store purchases by scanning a QR code on their cash withdrawal receipt using a smartphone running the company’s AllTM app... More
MCX suffers email address data breach
“Within the last 36 hours, we learned that unauthorized third parties obtained the email addresses of some of our CurrentC pilot program participants and individuals who had expressed interest in the app,” retailer-owned mobile payments consortium MCX has revealed... More
SIA offers Europeans instant P2P payments with Jiffy
Payment processor SIA has launched a peer-to-peer payments service that lets users send and receive money in real-time with their smartphone... More
Alipay demos biometrics for in-store payments
Chinese online payments giant Alipay demonstrated Alipay Touch, a fingerprint biometric system for its mobile wallet app, at a conference in Beijing earlier this month... More
Beep’nGo hits 5m downloads
Mobeam’s mobile coupon and offer app Beep’nGo has now surpassed five million downloads to compatible Android devices... More
Newspaper tests BLE beacons
Dutch newspaper publisher NDC Media is testing Bluetooth beacons with thirty shops in the town of Leeuwarden, Netherlands, to send offers to consumer smartphones running the Lightcurb mobile app... More
Shopkick drives $1bn in revenue
Location-based shopping app Shopkick reports that it has driven more than US$1bn in revenue for its partner retailers since its launch in 2010, more than half of which occurred in the past year... More
Perkwave builds in Apple Pay for pay-at-the-table
Harbortouch, a US-based point-of-sale system and merchant services provider, has unveiled Perkwave, a mobile app that uses Apple Pay to let customers pay at the table in participating restaurants. The service also includes loyalty and rewards functionality to encourage customers to pay using their mobile device. More
Dubai ambulances adopt NFC
The Dubai Corporation for Ambulance Services (DCAS) has launched an app that lets users store medical information and contact details that can be retrieved in an emergency with a tap of an NFC phone. More
Groupe BPCE launches Twitter money transfers
Groupe BPCE, the second largest banking group in France, has launched a service that will let users of its S-Money mobile app send money transfers via Twitter. More
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
Hong Kong carrier SmarTone rolls out Bluetooth marketing platform to retailers
Hong Kong mobile network operator SmarTone has introduced ST Beacon, a marketing service that lets retailers send promotional messages to customers with an Android or iOS device using Bluetooth... More
Ireland’s Leap Card to get NFC top-ups
Ireland’s National Transport Authority has awarded a contract to transit specialist Vix to enable Leap prepaid card users to top up their balance via NFC... More
Hailo reports on BLE payments in taxis
Pay with Hailo, a service that uses Apple’s iBeacon technology to let users of the Hailo taxi hailing app pay drivers with their smartphone, is experiencing “steady growth”, Naoise Irwin, the company’s VP of strategic initiatives, has told NFC World+ — and Hailo now plans to roll out the service across its growing international network... More