MCX Will Start with Cloud/Barcode (Jan. 14, 2013)
Jan. 14, 2013
MCX executives and member merchants revealed a few more details about their plans for mobile payments during a panel at the National Retail Federation’s Annual Convention & EXPO in New York City today, including that its initial mobile payments solution will be primarily barcode- and cloud-based. The coalition of merchants, which announced formation in August, said using barcode/cloud technology will enable its solution to work on the broadest array of smartphones and at a wide range of merchant locations where barcode payments can be accepted without major new capital expenses. Executives from MCX merchants publicly have been skeptical about NFC as the technology path to mobile payments adoption and also have said they are concerned about being disintermediated from their customer data.
The group is still silent about which technology partners it’s working with on a cloud/barcode solution but describes them as “world-class” partners. “We are not ready to share names of those partners at this time, but I would not mistake a lack of announcements for a lack of progress,” an MCX spokesperson tells Paybefore. Although he couldn’t disclose which payment types—such as open- or closed-loop—the wallet would enable, he says, “MCX is open to working with all issuers and discussions are ongoing.”
MCX continues to add to its list of merchant owners, including specialty retailers, such as DICK’S Sporting Goods and Hobby Lobby, and several regional convenience-store groups, including Wawa and QuikTrip. Participating merchants include seven of the 14 largest merchants by sales, and 19 of the top 100, according to the NRF’s STORES magazine ranking.
