Speed, Convenience of Contactless Payments Lead to Quantifiable Merchant Benefits

Of particular interest to merchants and issuers is that these advantages translate into quantifiable business benefits. The new Alliance report, Contactless Payments: Delivering Merchant and Consumer Benefits, profiles leading contactless payment initiatives including MasterCard PayPass, ExpressPay from American Express, Bank of Americas QuickWave and ExxonMobil Speedpass and presents many quantifiable results from actual field experience in these programs. For example, the white paper reports that MasterCard PayPass cardholder transaction volumes increased 12% from the prior year at the PayPass trial merchants, and that American Express ExpressPay pilot results showed that customer average transaction size increased 20 to 30% compared to cash spending at participating merchants. In developing the report, the Alliances active Terminal and eTransaction Infrastructure Task Force drew on their own experiences and other sources, including interviews with executives from American Express, Bank of America, JCB, MasterCard International and Visa USA, to get input on contactless payment initiatives and market forces for the new report. The companies testing contactless payment in market trials reported benefits for merchants in select segments. The report discusses benefits for merchants implementing contactless payment. It presents a sample business case, describes which merchant segments can benefit most, and explains what a merchant needs to do to implement contactless payment at the point of sale. Benefits to consumers and issuers are also discussed, along with profiles and status of current U.S. financial organization contactless payment programs. Individuals from 17 member organizations in the Alliance Task Force were involved in the development of the report. Lead contributors included representatives from American Express, Atmel Corporation, Axalto, Bank of America, First Data Corporation, IBM, Infineon Technologies, JCB International Credit Card Co., MasterCard International, VeriFone, Visa USA, ViVOtech, and Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA).