More than half of credit card transactions at Australian supermarket chain Coles are contactless, and the merchant hit the milestone just over six months after rolling out contactless terminals across its more than 700 supermarkets.
That’s according to according to a blog post and video by Visa Australia promoting the quick take-up of contactless by Coles customers. The video says Coles recorded 9 million contactless transactions in December of 2012 and completed its rollout of terminals in June.
It’s not clear how many of those transactions were with contactless credit cards and how many used debit. About two-thirds of all transactions at Coles are conducted with either credit or debit cards, said the retailer.
Coles rolled out 14,000 terminals in its more than 700 supermarkets, accepting both payWave and MasterCard PayPass. Customers can tap to pay for purchases of up to A$100 (US$102.74) without entering a PIN code or signing a receipt.
“One of the things customers hate is waiting in line to pay, and so contactless has helped us speed up the processing of contactless transactions through the check out, and that’s allowed us to reduce our costs and reinvest that time throughout the store,” Richard Wormald, general manager for strategy and financial services at Coles, says in the Visa video.
Wormald said the rollout of contactless terminals took only six months to complete and has been “one of our smoothest technology rollouts.”
He added that the rollout of terminals in the stores lays the groundwork for future launches of services on NFC phones.
“Now with contactless embedded across our estates, that’s a foundation for mobile payments, and so now we’re working on how we bring together for customers great offers on their loyalty card on their mobile phone together with payment, and that’s really where we see the future going.”
Australia is considered a hotspot for contactless payment. MasterCard last August said there were 100,000 contactless POS terminals accepting PayPass at the time. All or nearly all of the terminals would also accept payWave.
Woolworths, an even larger supermarket chain than Coles has also rolled out contactless terminals, and contactless payment is accepted at certain fast-food restaurants, convenience stores, clothing shops and sports stadiums, among other merchant locations, in Australia.
Mobile operators Optus and Vodafone Hutchison have both said they plan mobile NFC commercial launches this year.