Barclays builds on Pingit head start
Barclays is making a determined effort to capitalise on the two-year lead it has built up with its Pingit mobile payments application with two new applications intended to allow retailers to integrate mobile payments into their services.
The first is Mobile Checkout, a payment feature that allows purchases from a mobile Web or app checkout page. The second is Buy It, which “bridges the gap between advertising and sales by enabling consumers to purchase advertised goods and services immediately”, the bank said.
Mike Walters, head of UK corporate payments at Barclays said: “For mobile enabled businesses, this is a great way to increase sales conversion by reducing payment input errors and increased consumer assurance at checkout. For new players to the market, it is an easy, low risk way to enter into mobile commerce.”
Buy It enables instant purchases from traditional advertising material. By logging onto Barclays Pingit, consumers can buy products direct from an advert and other marketing items by scanning a quick response (QR) code. Barclays Pingit displays the product information – price, merchant information, delivery information and stock levels. Confirming these details enables a Barclays Pingit user to initiate an instant purchase, which can be delivered to a chosen address. Once confirmed, the customer receives a confirmation via SMS and email.
Walters added: “Mobile commerce has grown more than 250 per cent during the past two years and it is important that businesses provide consumers with a convenient and easy payment method through this channel.”
Barclays launched Pingit in February 2011, breaking ranks with the other UK banks, who are involved with the Payment Council’s Mobile Payments Scheme. Their scheme uses a proxy database managed by VocaLink, the UK payment processor.
VocaLink has also launched its own mobile payments solution, Zapp and hopes to announce several signings “in the next few weeks” but both of these are not expected to be available until the middle of next year.
