SmartPay to Pay for Fuel via PayPal
- The local US gas stations Cumberland Farms are currently pilot testing a new mobile payment service, SmartPay, developed in collaboration with PayPal.
- The SmartPay app is available in iOS, Android and through a mobile website. The user has to link his PayPal account to the app to make payments.
- The geolocation-based service identifies the given gas station; the user enters his gas pump number and notifies that he agrees to make a payment. Once this operation completed, a receipt is sent to him by e-mail.
- Cumberland Farms rewards all customers willing to take part in these trials through applying a 5 cents per gallon discount on their SmartPay transactions.
Source: Boston.com
- This partnership enables PayPal to set foot in the face-to-face fuel market; SmartPay is currently tested in about 50 gas stations and should soon be made available at 600 Cumberland Farms locations.
- SmartPay is not the first fuel dedicated m-payment app ever launched in the US as, in June 2011, Murphy’s presented an SMS-based payment system making it possible to find out the best offers or be granted 3 cents per gallon discounts.
- Cumberland Farms had initially partnered with the m-payment-centred start-up Fig Card to design the app. Fig Card has been bought by PayPal in April 2011 thus enabling the gas stations to benefit from the giant’s expertise and popularity to cater for the development of its offer (PayPal represents almost 230 million accounts worldwide). For PayPal, this is yet another opportunity to grow on the proximity payment sector, on a specific though highly promising market.