The Co-Operative becomes first major food retailer to roll out contactless technology
14 Jul 2010 09:14
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-operative 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.
Contactless payment, which is already commonplace and proving popular in the USA and Asia, is ideal for transactions where speed is essential, especially at supermarkets and petrol stations. Roll-out of contactless payment in the UK began in 2007 and there are now over nine million contactless enabled cards in circulation.
Sean Toal, Commercial Director, Food Retail, 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.”
Mark Hale, Director of Food IS, The Co-operative Group, added: “Contactless payment has huge benefits for our customers. In essence, this innovative technology will mean increased customer choice and faster transaction speed, which will vastly improve the customer experience.”
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.
Stuart Neal, Head of UK Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard, said: “We’re absolutely delighted that The Co-operative is joining forces with Barclaycard to roll out contactless payments across all of its stores. For a household name such as The Co-operative to commit to the technology really shows that it is the future of payments, and we are looking forward to working with them to further enhance the in-store experience for their customers.”
Notes to Editors:
About contactless
Contactless payment enables customers to make a purchase of £15 or less without the need to sign or enter a pin. Barclays and Barclaycard are leading the way in introducing contactless and there are now over eight million contactless-enabled Barclaycards and Barclays debit cards, helping retailers reduce queuing and cut the cost of card transactions. In line with its history of providing customers with innovative payment forms, Barclaycard also intends to make payments by mobile phone available to the mass market by 2012.
Barclays and Barclaycard are the leading providers of contactless terminals in the UK with 25,000 live and accepting payment throughout the country for retailers including Prêt A Manger, Subway, Yo! Sushi and EAT.
To find out more about contactless payment, visit www.barclaycard.co.uk/contactless/ or www.Barclays.co.uk/contactless
About The Co-operative Group
The Co-operative Group stands apart from other major retailers in the UK as a business which is owned, not by a small group of shareholders, but by more than five million consumers. With core interests in food, financial services, travel, pharmacy, funerals and farms, it has an annual turnover of £14 billion, employs 123,000 staff and operates over 5,000 retail trading outlets handling more than 20 million weekly transactions.
Following the acquisition of the Somerfield supermarket chain in March 2009, The Co-operative Food is the fifth largest food retailer. The Co-operative Financial Services is one of the largest and most diversified financial mutual businesses, operating The Co-operative Bank, The Co-operative Insurance and Britannia.
The Co-operative is the UK’s number one provider of funeral services, the third largest retail pharmacy chain, a leading travel retailer, supplying the travel needs of more than three million people annually, and is the UK’s largest farmer.
Among its other businesses are The Co-operative Motor Group, The Co-operative Electrical and The Co-operative Legal Services.
Barclaycard, part of Barclays Global and Retail Banking division, is a leading global payment business which understands the needs of both purchasers and sellers. It enables retailers and merchants to accept cards, helps customers make payments through card, contactless and mobile applications as well as extending credit to consumers. The company is one of the pioneers of new forms of payments and is at the forefront of developing viable contactless and mobile payment schemes for today and cutting edge forms of payment for the future. It also issues credit and charge cards to corporate customers and the UK Government. Barclaycard partners with a wide range of organisations across the globe to offer their customers or members payment options and credit. In addition to the UK, Barclaycard operates in the United States, Europe and Africa.
Key facts published in August 2010;
- number of UK customers: 11.1m
- number of International customers: 10.5m
- number of retailer/merchant relationships: 85,000.