ADN’co Payments Insight – April 2016

POS checkout – Small revolution in France

• FRANCE – Franprix starts an innovative experiment and equips its staff with payment rings and aprons embedding a till and touchscreen tablet. Payments may then conducted anywhere in their pilot stores.

Cross-channel – Web giants aiming for brick and mortar locations

• UNITED STATES – Facebook could be proposing a Messenger-based in-store mobile payment service. But this rumour however confirms their cross-channel ambitions.
• UNITED STATES – Amazon partners with Moda Operandi (luxury ready to wear items) to design a cross-channel shopping experience: another step towards the physical retail sector.

These services again show that the barriers between physical and online commerce are being dropped, and Web natives’ interest in in-store implantation is obvious. These giants are very much helped by their customer’s hyper-connectivity, and their moves are being adapted to today’s evolving use cases. The point for these players would be to benefit from cross-channel promises, while keeping their core business intact.

M-payment – Alipay far reaching for Europe

• EUROPE – Alipay would be getting ready to launch in Europe: its Chinese customers will be able to pay through their Alipay mobile wallet while abroad, and enjoy discounts from partner stores.

This announcement has been expected a while, and follows their partnership with Wirecard to address the German market. Alipay, just like WeChat, aims for international markets: perfect growth relays considering their initial targets’ mobility.

Blockchain – More use cases

• FRANCE – The Banque de France is now pondering over Blockchain-related opportunities and getting ready for a series of tests with two industry specialised French start-ups.
• FRANCE – BNP Paribas partners with the crowdfunding platform SmartAngels to try and test a blockchain-based fundraising system for SMEs.
• UNITED KINGDOM – Barclays supports Circle’s implantation in the UK. This platform will propose pounds/dollars money transfers, based on a bitcoin exchange infrastructure.

Banking players’ interest in the blockchain has been growing. Leading institutions would now be considering this protocol’s application both for the sake saving time, and reducing costs.