Branded Mobile Wallets Help Retailers Boost Customer Loyalty and Reduce Transaction Costs

Branded mobile wallets are the wave of the future because they help companies give their customer loyalty a boost. First, they offer a quick and convenient method of keeping track of customer loyalty programs. Second, they offer an easy payment method. Third, they keep customers engaged in the brand experience through the use of a payment app.

Starbucks is an example of a company currently boasting a successful branded mobile wallet, as noted by a December, 2015, article in Mobile Payments Today. Their loyalty program, familiar to almost all their regular customers, is made even more accessible by their payment app, which automatically keeps track of when they will receive their next free beverage. 

The Starbucks app also offers its customers the convenience and security of paying on their mobile device. To use it, customers simply hold their phone up to the scanner as they check out. In addition, this method of payment is only accessible through their mobile device, which can be locked and coded via password or thumbprint, ensuring the security of the payment process.

Finally, the Starbucks branded mobile wallet makes certain that customers maintain consistent contact with the Starbucks experience, since they access payment and loyalty program points through the Starbucks app. This way Starbucks customers remain "in the know" regarding new promotions and other changes to the Starbucks experience, without having to deal with a third-party app. This substantially increases customer loyalty to the brand.

As noted above, the Starbucks branded mobile wallet has been most successful in today's increasingly app-minded society. Mobile Payments Today tells us that 16 million customers use the mobile wallet app, accounting for 21 percent of Starbucks transactions. Other companies, such as Wal-Mart and Target, are now following suit with their own branded mobile wallets.

Our very own mBeaconPay smart payment technology, which works with and operates on a wide variety of POS and smartphones, allows customers and retailers to exchange payment information in a quick and efficient manner via a branded mobile wallet.

So next time you get a coffee or even head toward the check-out counter at your local department store, get ready for quick and easy payment with your mobile device. You'll be joining a growing number of people who enjoy the same convenience.

Reduce Fraud and Card Skimming with Headless ATMs

As the worldwide economy makes the gradual shift toward cashless alternatives of payment, the payment technologies we use change, as well. One of the newest innovations in payment technology is called the headless ATM and is a tool designed to prevent fraud and crime while providing for the effective transfer of payment information.

What is a headless ATM, and how does it work?

Headless ATMs are the newest innovation in payment technology, tailored to work with the proximity payment software solutions that are beginning to dominate the world economy. While most modern ATMs rely on payments in the form of cash and credit cards and debit cards, headless ATMs accept payment from alternative devices, such as smartphones and smartwatches. Using Bluetooth technology, headless ATMs are capable of establishing connections with participating devices, which transfer payment information through specialized apps.

According to a recent article from News Hour, smartphones are fast replacing credit and debit cards, as banks around the world are continually opting in favor of the new technology. The article cites benefits such as reduced security risk and ease of use as reasons that banks are making the shift toward headless ATM technology.

Netclearance's mBeaconPay

At Netclearance, we specialize in technology solutions that are specially crafted to work with headless ATMs. Our mBeaconPay hardware and software works with ATMs, smartphones, and smartwatches in a seamless manner that cooperates with existing software, making it easy to use and implement. We partner with banks around the world to help them make the shift toward alternative payment and cash withdrawal methods that are revolutionizing monetary transactions. Contact us today to learn how we can help make the shift toward headless ATMs.

Smart Mobile Loyalty Strategies Boost Customer Engagement and Profits

One simple yet powerful strategy at the forefront of any successful business is that company's customer loyalty program.  With such a strategy returning customers are rewarded for their patronage, often with a tremendously discounted, or sometimes completely free, item of the customer's choosing.  Now companies can take that a step further and, with the aid of today's technology, implement a mobile loyaltyprogram.  Exactly what is that?  Let's find out now.

General Definition

A mobile rewards program is basically the same thing as a typical customer loyalty rewards program, the difference being the customer utilizes it through their SmartPhone or tablet.  Nowadays a high percentage of the public uses some form of mobile technology, including for payment methods and customer rewards programs. 

Why Use a Mobile Customer Rewards Program?

The biggest reason is that it is more convenient for the customer than carrying around a card in their wallet.  Instead that business' rewards system is used by something they carry anyhow - their mobile phone.  Rewards points are accumulated in the same manner as with a physical card but are stored on, and cashed in from, the person's mobile device.

Advantage for Businesses

Having a mobile customer rewards program is great for business because it makes it easy for customers to use it.  This is a huge incentive for them to keep returning time and time again.  They do not have to waste time searching for a physical card.  Instead they can pull out their phone and press an app button for that merchant.  Your business will be treating your customer's phone as a loyalty rewards card. 

How Does This Type of Program Work?

You set up an attractive-looking kiosk inside your business that invites your customers to come over.  When they do, a friendly employee will encourage them to participate in YOUR business' mobile customer loyalty program.  As an added bonus your business can offer them the option of receiving pertinent text messages that are related to your program. 

Netclearance offers a turn-key mobile loyalty program called  Bounty  that can kick-start your mobile loyalty initiatives with a low-entry cost and support for the major mobile platforms. Contact us and visit www.bountyusa.com to request more information.

New Payment Technology Helps Banks Catch up with Third-Party Mobile Wallets

When consumers prepare to pay for purchases these days, a growing number of them are whipping out their phones instead of their wallets. Mobile payment apps have added a new and convenient way for people to pay for goods and services. As these digital wallets gain market traction, banks could find themselves in trouble. Conventional ways of payment -- and the revenue that they produce for banks -- are falling by the wayside. 

When consumers pay by swiping a payment card, banks make money through the fees that are attached to each transaction. Transactions completed through mobile payment services such as Venmo, Apple Pay, and Samsung Pay are now eating into that bank revenue. There are more players entering the space.According to Bloomberg News, Walmart, Starbucks and even Chevron gas stations are working on plans for their own digital wallets. Banks know that the days of debit and credit cards being the preferred method of payment are numbered. “We see a day when customers are leaving their home without their card,” Jonathan Velline, head of ATM and store strategy at Wells Fargo, told Bloomberg.

Some banks are taking steps to compete with their own digital wallets. Capital One has introduced a digital wallet, Bloomberg notes. JP Morgan Chase is preparing to launch one soon. While they may be late to the game, they may be able to reach a broader set of consumers. The digital wallets offered by Apple and Samsung work with Apple and Samsung technology respectively. Banks could offer the advantage of being able to work with any smart device, regardless of its maker. 

You don’t have to wait for U.S. banks to implement mobile wallets to see the technology in action. European banks are already early adopters of such technology. Denmark-based Danske Bank, for example, uses mobile payment hardware and software developed by Netclearance. The software, called mBeaconPay, works on all smartphones. The technology enables banks to offer consumers their own digital wallet solution without being tied to a specific mobile device maker. Danske Bank has deployed mBeaconPay-enabled mobile wallets to more than 30,000 merchants across Scandinavia, where it has quickly established itself as one of the top five mobile apps in the region. 

Banks, like any business, count on new customers to grow. The problem for banks is that millennials who could become their new customers are deciding against conventional banking and choosing instead to bank through the growing number of mobile payment services. If banks want a fighting chance to catch up with third-party mobile wallets, they’ll need a digital payment technology to do it. Contact us to learn more about how mBeaconPay is helping banks deploy their own mobile wallets.

Cryptocurrencies in retail: Bitcoins and Beacons

Cryptocurrencies in retail, the future is now.

Bitcoin has gained traction in recent years. But what is Bitcoin?

Bitcoin is a new mode of payment, a new type of money that works as a worldwide payment method with low processing fees and fast peer-to-peer transactions.

Utilization of peer-to-peer technology allows Bitcoin to operate with no banks or central authority to control its transactions.

The issuing of bitcoins as well as the management of transactions is carried out through the network, collectively. In addition, Bitcoin is open-source making the design of Bitcoin available for public use.

No one controls or owns Bitcoin and the world can be a part of it. Bitcoin has a variety of unique properties allowing exciting uses no other previous payment system can top, especially maintaining privacy.

The only problem is because it is so new, few companies use it in retail as existing payment terminals and cash registers cannot support this new payment method so easily.

Well, PROBLEM SOLVED.

Netclearance mBeaconPay platform allows seamless integration with retail cash registers enabling Bitcoin payment acceptance in the popular world of retail, thus helping customer adopt it as a preferred method of payment.

Imagine, never having to use a bank account or credit card again? Bitcoins give you privacy and allow you to make purchases without fear of being monitored. Better yet, with companies like Netclearance providing the bridge between Bitcoin and retail, soon this innovative payment method will become the norm.

In fact, there are already deployments underway in Scandinavia that are paving the way for new digital currencies in retail. 

Check out the Netclearance Blog for more information and make sure to Tweet them.