The News

Smart Card Alliance Introduces New Contactless and Mobile Payments Tools for Merchants

16/12/2008

PRINCETON JUNCTION, N.J., December 16, 2008–The Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payments Council today introduced new tools for merchants accepting or thinking about accepting contactless and mobile payments. Merchants can now access a model to calculate return on investment (ROI) for accepting contactless payments, as well as an online discussion forum to interact with and ask industry experts questions and post comments about contactless and mobile payments.
Merchants can download the beta release of the merchant ROI model by visiting: http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/publications-contactless-payments-merchant-roi-model.
The merchant online discussion forum can be found at http://merchantforum.smartcardalliance.org.

Merchant ROI Model
“Merchants like Dairy Queen, Arby’s and CVS/pharmacy are accepting contactless payments, helping them service more customers and increase customer satisfaction and loyalty,” said Randy Vanderhoof, executive director of the Smart Card Alliance. “But in addition to these benefits, merchants can also experience a solid return on investment. For the first time, merchants have an easy-to-use ROI tool to help them make the business decision to accept contactless payments.”
The model asks merchants to enter data specific to their business, such as revenue, store information, payment transaction information (volume, type and cost of transactions), transaction speed, expected changes in transaction volume and speed after contactless payments are accepted, and implementation costs. With this information, the model then calculates an ROI based on increase in revenue, savings from fewer chargebacks, reduced cash handling and improved operational efficiency and incremental costs of implementing contactless payments.
Companies that contributed to building the merchant ROI model are Chase, First Data, Discover Financial Services, INSIDE Contactless, Ubiq, Inc., USA Technologies, VeriFone and ViVOtech.

Merchant Discussion Forum
“The forum was developed to provide a tool for merchants to discuss all of the ins and outs of contactless and mobile payments with other participants in the industry,” said Brent Bowen, chair of the Council Merchant Work Group and vice president, business development at INSIDE Contactless. “We invite merchants and industry participants to read posts, register to ask questions and/or respond to comments. The Smart Card Alliance will monitor the forum and offer helpful information and guidance so participants can save time getting answers about these new, exciting and ever-changing payment approaches.”

Topics for the forum include:
- How to accept contactless and/or mobile payments
- What the business case is for accepting contactless payments
- What the best practices are for accepting contactless payments
- What the best practices are for training and support

Questions about the merchant discussion forum can be sent to merchant-forum@smartcardalliance.org.
For more information about the merchant ROI model or the merchant discussion forum, please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org/pages/activities-councils-contactless-payments.

About the Smart Card Alliance
The Smart Card Alliance is a not-for-profit, multi-industry association working to stimulate the understanding, adoption, use and widespread application of smart card technology.
Through specific projects such as education programs, market research, advocacy, industry relations and open forums, the Alliance keeps its members connected to industry leaders and innovative thought. The Alliance is the single industry voice for smart cards, leading industry discussion on the impact and value of smart cards in the U.S. and Latin America. For more information please visit http://www.smartcardalliance.org.

About the Contactless and Mobile Payments Council The Smart Card Alliance Contactless and Mobile Payments Council works to facilitate the adoption of contactless payment and mobile payment in the United States through education programs for consumers, merchants, issuers and mobile operators. The Council is made up of over 120 individuals from 48 organizations, bringing together payments industry leaders, merchants and technology providers.