Top multiples boost mobile payments schemes

Sainsbury’s and Tesco both unveiled changes to their mobile payments systems aimed at boosting their stores’ convenience credentials and grabbing customer data.

Tesco has updated its mobile payments app and renamed it Tesco Pay +, it has collected customer data on a quarter of a million users since launch in 2015, with the app now handling just under 30,000 transactions per day. Tesco Pay+ boss Mark Loch said it will: “continue to transform the shopping journey offering little helps to customers every time they shop in Tesco.”

Sainsbury’s launch aims to remove checkouts and checkout staff alike, allowing customers to scan products as they shop and automatically paying as they leave the store. Currently a trial at the retailer’s Euston Station outlet, if successful the system will reduce staff costs and increase customer data collection.  Head of customer experience at the retailer Natalie Dunn comments: “We are always looking for new ways to help our customers live well – and saving customers time is one way we can do so.”

Both companies outlined making both supermarkets and small format stores more convenient for shoppers, but the benefits for the multiples go beyond customer service and cost savings. The advancement in mobile payments takes multiples beyond simply knowing when people shop and what people buy, it gives the retailers data on what each individual customer does outside of their stores as well. For instance, both apps collect information on where else a customer visits and the user’s phone details.

The announcements come shortly after another payments trial was announced at a Costcutter store at Brunel University using fingerprint recognition.

Mobile payments isn’t exclusive to multiples or those with cutting edge fingerprint tech, independent convenience retailers are also using systems such as zapper to learn about their customers and take payments on the go.

However, many retailers are opting for a wait and see approach, looking at the success or failure of other retailers before making the leap. Chard Newsagents owner Les Gilbert told Retail Express: “Sometimes with technology it is best to let the trailblazers trial it and jump in when the moment is right!”