Tag: qr code mobile payments

The test run is being launched at college campuses in partnership with Chartwells.

LevelUp, a mobile payments startup, has just announced that it is taking an important step forward in the smartphone based transaction environment by running a trial of its service among the demographic that is most likely to carry compatible devices.

It is starting this pilot project on college campuses, as students of this age are highly likely to carry smartphones.

This mobile payments test is being conducted in partnership with Chartwells Higher Education Dining Services, a company that supplies food to colleges across the United States. Throughout this trial of the smartphone transaction service, certain colleges will allow LevelUp to be used to pay for meals at the dining halls.

At the moment, the mobile payments trial includes Northeastern University (Boston) and Buffalo State (New York).

According to Chartwells, it agreed to take part in the LevelUp pilot project at the two colleges because it believes that mobile payments will help to make the ordering process at mealtime both faster and more convenient. The vice president of marketing and creative services at Chartwells, Patti Girardi, explained that “Chartwells chose to pilot the new payment system at Buffalo State and Northeastern because we thought it was a perfect fit for our partners.”

Girardi went on to explain that LevelUp was a strong match for Chartwells because it is also capable of offering the company analytics about the purchases that are being made, the visits that are made to the sites, as well as the return visits. This data could be highly beneficial in determining precisely which limited time offers and promotions have been successful among students, and when sales fluctuations are occurring at retail locations. The information could be applied to better understand the purchasing behaviors of the students that they serve.

To use the mobile payments service, the student will need to have downloaded the LevelUp app. It functions in the same way at the dining halls in the college as it does at other merchants who accept these transactions. A payment card is linked by the student to a personal QR code, which is then rendered on the app. The point of sale is equipped with a scanner that can scan the code in order to complete the transaction.

Chungwa, a carrier from Taiwan, will be launching its service in the summer of 2013.

The latest technology news from Taiwan is that Chungwa Telecom Co., the largest mobile network operator in the country, will be launching a mobile payments program that will use QR codes to allow the transactions to be completed.

This could make a considerable difference in the adoption rate of mobile payments in Taiwan.

In order to use the program, consumers would use their smartphones to scan QR codes so that they can make payments to complete purchases of goods and services while in stores. This, according to a report that was released by the company, itself, announcing the upcoming mobile friendly service.

Pending regulatory approval from the QR codes could start to be used as early as June.

As of the launch of the QR codes based mobile payments service, the program is slated to become available to consumers as of June 2013. The report did not announce how many partner merchants have signed up to take part in the program, so far.

Chungwa is a company that is a part of a consortium that is made up of the biggest mobile carriers in Taiwan. This group has also been looking beyond QR codes and is investigating mobile wallet products that would use NFC technology. They believe that this could help to make mobile payments more appealing to individuals who are carrying enabled devices.

That initiative was launched earlier in 2013, but would not be ready until well after the service using the QR codes has already been implemented. Chungwa had actually launched a trial of an NFC technology based mobile payments service, last year, but the most recent report issued by the company didn’t mention whether that is for a program that would take over for the barcodes, or whether it would run the two types of payment services in tandem with one another.

At the moment, it will be the service using the QR codes that will first become available. Whether it will be temporary to draw attention to this type of smartphone-based payments or whether it will continue to run even if NFC technology is implemented, only time will tell.