The Co-operative Food will become the UK’s first major grocery retailer to introduce contactless payment in its stores nationwide after joining forces with Barclaycard.
Contactless payment allows customers to make purchases of £15 or less, without the need to enter a PIN or insert their card into a payment terminal. Once the card has been held over the contactless terminal, the secure transaction uses the tried and tested Chip and PIN technology to automatically add the purchase to the customer’s credit card bill or debit it from their current account.
The roll-out will begin with a pilot in 100 Co-operative food stores next year after an agreement was signed with Barclaycard in partnership with Visa.
If the pilot is successful, The Co-op will roll out the terminals to the majority of its food stores in time for the 2012 Olympics, which is being billed as a contactless event, where visitors are expected to experience the full convenience of contactless payment on transport, tickets and other low value purchases.
Sean Toal, commercial director in food retail, at The Co-operative Group, said: “This is a great opportunity for The Co-operative to work in partnership with Barclaycard to become the first major food retailer in the UK to roll-out this unique payment method. It has received an excellent reception from both customers and retailers where it has been launched overseas and is ideal for our store portfolio.”
Contactless payment will also increase throughput as research has shown that a large number of customers will walk out of a shop if they see an excessive queue length.
Source: The Co-op
