Barclaycard Contactless Technology Rolls Out Across Co-Operative Stores Nationwide

NORTHAMPTON, England, July 23 /PRNewswire/ -- Barclaycard joins forces with The Co-operative Food as it becomes the UK's first major grocery retailer to introduce contactless payment in its stores nationwide.

The contactless roll-out will begin with a pilot in 100 Co-operative food stores next year after an agreement was signed with Barclaycard in partnership with Visa. If the pilot is successful, The Co-operative will roll out the terminals to the majority of its food stores in time for the 2012 Olympics, which is being billed as a contactless event, where visitors are expected to experience the full convenience of contactless payment on transport, tickets and other low value purchases.

Contactless payment allows customers to make purchases of 15 pounds Sterling or less, without the need to enter a PIN or insert their card into a payment terminal. Once the card has been held over the contactless terminal, the secure transaction uses the tried and tested Chip and PIN technology to automatically add the purchase to the customer's credit card or debit it from their current account.

Contactless payment, which is already commonplace and proving popular in the USA and Asia, is ideal for transactions where speed is essential, especially at supermarkets and petrol stations. Roll-out of contactless payment in the UK began in 2007 and there are now over nine million contactless enabled cards in circulation.

Sean Toal, commercial director, Food Retail, The Co-operative Group, said: "This is a great opportunity for The Co-operative to work in partnership with Barclaycard to become the first major food retailer in the UK to roll-out this unique payment method. It has received an excellent reception from both customers and retailers where it has been launched overseas and is ideal for our store portfolio."

Mark Hale, director of Food IS, The Co-operative Group, added: "Contactless payment has huge benefits for our customers. In essence, this innovative technology will mean increased customer choice and faster transaction speed, which will vastly improve the customer experience."

Contactless payment will also increase throughput as research has shown that a large number of customers will walk out of a shop if they see an excessive queue length.

Stuart Neal, head of UK Payment Acceptance at Barclaycard, said: "We're absolutely delighted that The Co-operative is joining forces with Barclaycard to roll out contactless payments across all of its stores. For a household name such as The Co-operative to commit to the technology really shows that it is the future of payments, and we are looking forward to working with them to further enhance the in-store experience for their customers."

Notes  to Editors:

About Barclaycard:

Barclaycard, part of Barclays Global Retail Banking division, is a leading global payment business which helps consumers, retailers and businesses to make and accept payments flexibly, and to access low interest rate credit cards, build credit and provides its own customer rewards scheme.

Barclays and Barclaycard are leading the way in introducing contactless and there are now over eight million contactless-enabled Barclaycards and Barclays debit cards, helping retailers reduce queuing and cut the cost of card transactions. In line with its history of providing customers with innovative payment forms, Barclaycard also intends to make payments by mobile phone available to the mass market by 2012.

Barclays and Barclaycard are the leading providers of contactless terminals in the UK with 25,000 live and accepting payment throughout the country for retailers including Pret A Manger, Subway, Yo! Sushi and EAT.  

About The Co-operative Group

The Co-operative Group stands apart from other major retailers in the UK as a business which is owned, not by a small group of shareholders, but by more than five million consumers. With core interests in food, financial services, travel, pharmacy, funerals and farms, it has an annual turnover of 14 billion pounds Sterling, employs 123,000 staff and operates over 5,000 retail trading outlets handling more than 20 million weekly transactions.  

SOURCE Barclaycard