BCP is leading the way in the convenience sector with the introduction of an integrated contactless EFT payment solution it has developed with industry partner Spar (UK) Ltd for its AccordPoS store solution.

Contactless payment is one of the latest developments in payment technology utilising an embedded RFID chip on payment cards in combination with the normal EMV chip to enable customers to pay securely by waving their card over a reader at the point of sale. Benefits include faster transactions, lower transaction fees and some research suggests consumers are likely to spend more due to the ease of small transactions. Speed and convenience at the point of sale and a limit of £15 per transaction make contactless payment ideal for quick service businesses with low value transactions, such as c-stores.

A range of stand-alone contactless solutions are available, but BCP’s integrated AccordPoS solution is believed to a first in the c-store sector. Integrating directly to the till system, it provides additional benefits over stand alone offerings - increased speed, reduced training requirements, elimination of errors from having to rekey transactions and, of particular importance, it provides a full and secure audit trail of card payments taken through the PoS, thereby eliminating reconciliation issues.

Brian Preece, Retail Divisional Director of BCP, said: “Initially, we developed this solution in conjunction with Spar aimed at reducing EFT transaction costs for SPAR Card Services Retailers. They introduced it at their Haymarket store in central London, followed quickly by three other London SPAR stores, where the contactless payment trials took place.

“The system will be rolled out, as appropriate, to other SPAR stores so their customers can take advantage of contactless payment at their local store as their regular credit and debit cards are replaced by ‘contactless’ enabled cards and the stores can benefit from reduced transaction costs.

“Spar has been told by RBS that we are the first in our marketplace to ‘integrate’ contactless payment and this provides the first steps to reducing transaction cost for Debit Cards for AccordPoS users – up to 40% cheaper than standard debit transactions – as well as allowing us to serve customers faster.”