Cutting Edge Mobile Technology Drives Move Toward Cashless Societies

Retailers have long accepted multiple forms of payment as a way of catering to the preferences of their customers. While many consumers prefer credit or debit cards, there are still people who pay cash. But as consumers become more digitally minded, cash payments are going away for some retailers. Some countries, such as Denmark, are becoming cashless societies. The Danish government is considering a proposal to allow some establishments, such as restaurants, clothing stores, and gas stations, to refuse cash payments, according to Pymnts.com.

One motivation for cashless transactions is economic growth. Retailers spend resources on security and surveillance, Quartz explains. Making change for customers takes time. Cashless transactions reduce both transaction costs and crime. Quartz cites a McKinsey study that says electronic systems makes banking systems more productive while also reducing black market activities that skirt taxation.

The trend toward cashless transactions is perhaps furthest along in northern Europe. The United Kingdom first introduced contactless payments, where a consumer pays with card completes a transaction with a card reader through radio frequency identification or near field communication. The next wave of these cashless transactions is the mobile phone. For example, Denmark’s Danske Bank has over 2.5 million users of its mobile payment service, according to Quartz. In Sweden, the move toward cashless transactions is being spurred by banks, which use a mobile app called Swish that allows people to digitally transfer funds across accounts, FastCoExist explains.

Netclearance is helping to pave the way for cashless, mobile payments in Nordic countries. Our mBeaconPay software and hardware enables banks and retailers to process transactions wirelessly with mobile devices as if the payment were cash. Cash-based mobile payments may still be new in some markets but a growing number of retailers are adopting the technology. We can help your transition to cashless transactions. Contact us to learn more.

Danish Supermarket Bilka embraces mBeaconPay technology

An alternative secure method of payment

Since last summer we have been working very hard in developing a smart beacon solution that can satisfy the need of banks, consumers and merchants. That is our mBeaconPay solution which now is starting to be deployed nationwide in Denmark in cooperation with Danske Bank, GoAppified, and POS vendors.

One example is Danish Supermarket Bilka group of hypermarket that since June 18 is ready with MobilePay mobile payment in all 18 Bilka hypermarkets.

As simple as 1-2-3

You can pay by holding your smartphone over a Netclearance’s Smart Beacon box with MobilePay logo on. After entering your usual 4-digit PIN in MobilePay app simply confirm the purchase with a swipe motion. 

A new generation of Smart Beacons

It all can be done through the use of NFC and Bluetooth technology to allow smartphone with Android , iOS or Windows Phone communicate through MobilePay with Netclearance’s smart beacon. Alternatively, a unique QR code is scanned with the app, if your smartphone does not support the wireless technologies, hence making the solution ubiquitous for all smartphones.

Fast and easy

The payment is so easy and effortless that it has attracted attention outside the country. People from Germany, China, Spain, the UK and Finland have made a visit to the first supermarket-department store with MobilePay- with mBeaconPay payment technology. “They have all been mighty impressed by how easy and fast it is. People get really pleasantly surprised, and sometimes they have to try several times because they have a hard time believing that it really is that easy, ” says project manager in Danish Supermarket, Steffen Skov Larsen.