Mobiles and PDAs to help create retail brand loyalty
ViVOtech has added Infrared (IR) capabilities to its RFID contactless payment products to allow consumers to make payments via key fobs, cards, or infrared-enabled mobile phones and PDAs. Furthermore, the combined platform is expected to help promote brand loyalty through merchants' wider acceptance of payment technologies.
Addressing the needs of merchants and retailers who like to use existing payment infrastructure for multiple contactless payments and enhance their revenues, ViVOtech says it aims to provide a scalable transaction system that is also easy to use - both for the merchant and the consumer.
Consumer reach Existing ViVOtech products such as ViVOpay 3000 allow merchants to accept various types and brands of contactless payment systems while consumers and merchants only need to deal with a single card reader. Merchants are also able to support value added applications (such as a loyalty programme) by downloading the appropriate ViVOtech software. By using multiple technologies and extending the system's reach to millions of mobile phone and PDAs users, merchants stand to benefit by offering special promotions to targeted consumer groups, based on their preferred payment device.
"We strongly believe that making interoperable products will increase acceptance of contactless payments and pave the way for new applications in this space," said Jorge Fernandes, CEO for ViVOtech.
Leading technologies "Bundling Infrared with RFID enables merchants to capitalise on both of the leading contactless payments technologies, responding to varying community preferences while promoting brand loyalty and enhanced revenues in the process," commented Ed Kountz, senior analyst for emerging technology solutions at TowerGroup. "A bundled approach will make it easier for merchants to deploy contactless payment solutions relevant to local market conditions, while also increasing consumer usage of new payment and promotion solutions."
Massive market With more than 30 million users of infrared-enabled devices in North America alone, merchants could benefit from targeting those users with additional applications and security features that co-exist with the technology. In addition, infrared devices can be used for payments, promotions, loyalty schemes, and security applications.
ViVOtech's products that now have combined RFID and IR capabilities include ViVOpay 3000, ViVOplatform, ViVOpay Dine and ViVOwallet.
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