M-payment: Banca Sella Launches QR-Based App Up Mobile
- The Italian Banca Sella launches Up Mobile, an m-payment solution based on QR codes recognition. This app is available for free in iPhone and Android.
- The user provides personal data upon registration, an SMS is then sent for him to launch the app. In the next step, he links his payment card to the app through entering his banking information. He can modify or erase this information any time.
- To make a purchase, he simply captures a QR code to enable product identification; once this identification complete, he provides his PIN code for payment validation.
- Like many of its rivals, this player focuses on the mobile payment market through relying on QR codes: this approach implies merchant equipment efforts. This solution may respond to the needs of several sectors including car park payments, restaurants, points of sales as well as queue management (cinemas, fast-foods, etc.).
- In addition to a certain convenience inherent to these kinds of solutions, the notion of impulsive purchase is central: relevance of the mobile payment context and transactions only taking a few seconds. It should be reminded that payment players have no other option than to adjust their strategy to the opportunities offered by users’ behaviour: connected TV, “couch commerce”, mobile payment, overall mobile payment facilitation (see December 2011 Insight).