BWild |
September 1, 2015
The golf event has brought a traditional experience together with some of the latest transaction tech.
Despite the fact that many of the most loved features of golf are based on centuries old traditions, the PGA Tour has invited some of the latest tech into its event by accepting mobile payments through smartphones.
To do this, the PGA Tour has partnered up with MasterCard, particularly in Edison, New Jersey.
The event held at the Barclays will use MasterCard’s mobile payments tech to make it possible for attendees to be able to buy what they want at concession stands using their smartphones. Each one of those stands is equipped with POS terminals that will allow for contactless payments, in addition to Qkr! – MasterPass. To incentivize the use of this tech for paying for these purchases, those who use their smartphones to buy will receive a discount of about 10 percent off the total bill.
Fans can make mobile payments directly using either Android or iOS based smartphones at the event.
By choosing to pay using Qkr!, fans are able to use mobile technology as a type of replacement for using a credit card. It is meant to boost the convenience level for people who will be attending the event, as people already bring their smartphones with them wherever they go. Moreover, the belief is that it will help to reduce the waiting time for the customers that are purchasing concessions.
According to PGA Tour senior vice president of corporate partnerships, Brian Oliver, “Technology plays such a critical role in enhancing the spectator experience at our golf tournaments, and our long-standing relationship with MasterCard has helped ensure that we are delivering the latest in payment technology.” He went on to point out that MasterCard is continually boosting the safety and convenience of making purchases while at the event course.
He also went on to express that they are quite excited to be using this mobile payments technology at The Barclays. The Qkr! application use is meant to help fans to be able to keep their attention on the main event so that they won’t ever miss a single thing.
While half of all American retail transactions are still completed in cash, smartphones may soon change that.
When it comes to retail purchases in-store in the United States, about 50 percent are still being completed with cash, but according to Ajay Banga, the CEO of MasterCard, mobile payments will start to change that, and it won’t be long before it happens.
Banga spoke of his opinion on mobile solutions at the Deutsche Bank Global Financial Services Investor Conference.
He explained that the area in which mobile payments will make the most striking impact is in the percentage of transactions that it will be taking from cash as opposed to plastic cards. He said that he feels that smartphone based transactions are the way ahead, pointing out that in the United States, we feel as though credit and debit cards are essentially ubiquitous, but when it all comes down to it, half of all purchases are made with cash.
Both mobile payments and cash are being used primarily for smaller ticket purchases.
While smartphones may not be making much of a dent into larger purchases, people do seem willing to buy with their mobile devices with the total is a smaller one. That also happens to be the area in which people are most likely to pay with cash. Therefore, what Banga is predicting is that it will be cash, not necessarily plastic cards, that will start to be replaced by the use of these devices at the checkout counter.
Therefore, for items like a cup of coffee, picking up a container of milk at the supermarket on the way home from work, or picking up a pack of gum at the convenience store, a rising number of transactions will be completed through the use of m-payments instead of cash. This may also start to have an impact in other areas that have been traditionally based on cash transactions, such as taxi fares, which are still relatively new to the credit card scene.
Mobile payments are still trying to find their place when it comes to adoption and regular use and, if MasterCard’s CEO is right, it isn’t the credit card transactions that will be taken over by this technology, but the cash ones.
