Tag: australian mobile payments

Mobile payments could soon be available to Australians through Eftpos

| May 30, 2013

The company has announced the start of a trial program for small transactions in some stores.

Should a new Eftpos mobile payments trial prove to be successful, it may provide the opportunity to Australians to make digging through a purse or a pocket for change nothing more than a distant memory.

This is because its pilot program is to allow smartphone owners to use their devices to make small purchases.

The mobile payments trial will be run in certain Australian stores beginning in July. According to the CEO of Eftpos, Bruce Mansfield, if this program proves to be successful, it could lead to a much broader roll out in which the use of smartphones for this purpose could become mainstream. He explained that it could actually help to reduce the need for cash in smaller denominations.

Australia Mobile PaymentsEftpos believes that the convenience and speed of mobile payments will play very well in its favor.

Mansfield explained that “This type of mobile payment could displace low value cash. It’s quicker, it comes down to speed and convenience and potentially a reward. We’re certainly hopeful.”

This pilot project is the start of a five year agreement with mobile payments company, C-SAM. It will use technology similar to that which has been implemented by Visa PayWave. This near field communication tech (NFC technology) will be combined with apps in order to allow shoppers to use a form of digital wallet.

The CEO went on to specify that the reason that they have faith in the use of mobile payments in this way is that consumers in Australia “already have a love affair” with their smartphones. Now, they’re seeking to broaden the various ways in which interactions through smartphones can occur as an element of the overall shopping experience, and to take part in a greater amount of that interaction.

Beyond mobile payments, Mansfield also saw opportunities in providing shoppers with the ability to create lists of items they need, locate products, and find and use loyalty offer or reward programs using their smartphones. This way, consumers can combine their favorite device with a larger number of the shopping activities that they do in a regular day.

Mobile payments receive considerable boost from Australian telcos

| January 2, 2013

Mobile Payments AustraliaThis year will make it much easier for consumers in Australia to make purchases using smartphones.

Telcos in Australia are giving a significant kick to their intentions to bring mobile payments to consumers throughout the country so that they will be able to use their smartphones or tablets to pay for products or services at a store’s checkout counter.

This could be the first step toward making credit cards obsolete within the country.

Although mobile payments are a move that has been in the works for several years and very little action has actually been seen until very recently. Even the most recent steps have not been enormous, and the term “contactless payments” remains unknown to the majority of consumers, even among those whose devices are capable of the transactions.

Though the contactless mobile payments concept has great potential, it has been failing to gain traction.

The idea behind mobile payments is quite simple. It involves using a smartphone or tablet that is either waved over an enabled reader at a point of sale in a store, or tapped against it. This automatically transfers the funds necessary for making the purchase from the user’s credit card or bank account, into the account of the store.

The primary barrier faced by this type of mobile payments is the fact that only a small percentage of smartphones are actually enabled with the necessary NFC technology (near field communication) that allow these transactions to occur. This was held back even further by the release of the iPhone 5 by Apple, which shocked the mobile world when those chips were notably absent.

Vodafone and Telstra believe that this year will mark a difference in this trend. They believe that with many more NFC technology enabled devices entering the marketplace, it will represent a brand new opportunity for mobile payments to take off.

According to Dr. Hugh Bradlow, the chief technology officer at Telstra, “It’s been promised for a long time, but by next year many devices on the market will incorporate near field communication.” He went on to explain that in the mobile payments marketplace, “NFC has been a slow burn, but it will likely become entrenched next year and we plan to be a big part of that.”