Asda, HoF and Shop Direct to introduce mobile payment in 2015

The future of mobile payment may be closer than expected, as a group of leading UK retailers, including House of Fraser, Asda, Shop Direct and Sainsbury's have announced partnerships with mobile payments service Zapp.

As soon as next year, high street retailers such as Dune and Clarks will be begin offering mobile payments with Zapp, the innovative company behind the Link cash machines, both online and in-store, providing consumers with improvements in transactional security, convenience and speed.

Together the retailers which have signed up to support Zapp have a customer base of more than 35 million people and represent the largest gathering of support for the new payment method in the UK. According the a new report from global consultancy Kurt Salomon, consumers are in the right position to make the transition to mobile payments as long as they have the right support from banks, payment networks and retailers.

“Mobile payments technologies must achieve a critical mass of consumers in order to succeed,” commented Jason Goldberg, senior manager with the Global Financial Services practice at Kurt Salmon and co-author of the report. Zapp partnerships with retailers and banks including HSBC, Santander and Nationwide, put the mobile payment service in an ideal position to enter the UK market.

UK retailers team up with mobile payments service Zapp

“Today is a hugely significant milestone in the history of money in the UK. At last the promise of a truly mobile and digital payment method will become a reality, meaning easier and more secure checkouts for millions,” commented Peter Keenan, Chief Executive of Zapp. “It’s amazing to have the support of such well known retailers. Together with our other partners this means millions of consumers will be able to shop at tens of thousands of merchants up and down the UK at launch.”

Once launched, Zapp will let customers pay for items and services using their smart mobile phone and mobile banking app. Users will also be able to check their bank balance before selecting which account they wish to pay from and retailers will be able to choose how they adapt the service into their current payment systems.

“Demonstrating and communicating the security of the technology consistently and unambiguously is going to play a big part for banks and retailers in earning consumer trust and achieving mass adoption,” adds Goldberg. Zapp' s payments are said to be “more secure and simpler than existing methods”. Payments work via secure digital “tokens,” so customers do not reveal any of their financial details, including bank account information, to retailers.

Zapp aims to first roll out pilots ahead of a launch, which is set to take place sometime in the first half of 2015. “At House of Fraser we are committed to delivering the best retail experience for our customers,” commented Andy Harding, Executive Director, Multi-Channel at House of Fraser. “We believe that mobile payments will be an important part of this experience and Zapp allows customers a simple, secure and easy to use way to pay for their shopping.”

“Shop Direct are excited to be working with Zapp to make it easy for our customers to pay their accounts online and shop with our brands,” said Jonathan Wall, Group E-commerce Director of Shop Direct. “Mobile payments are a key area of innovation for us and Zapp are definitely one of the winners in this area.”