The GSMA has published Mobile Commerce, NFC Coupons and Loyalty Acceptance, a technical proposal based on open standards that aims to provide “the tools, knowledge and methodology for mobile operators and the wider retail ecosystem to work together to develop a consistent approach to mobile loyalty and couponing”.

The technical architecture described in the document is designed for use with NFC SIMs issued by carriers, based on the GS1 digital coupon management standard.

“A consistent approach will generate economies of scale across the value chain,” the GSMA explains. “Similarly, the use of open standards for technical delivery can engender consistency and simplicity, helping extend the reach of loyalty programmes and generate scale.

“Until now, there has been no single, common, open specification for a digital platform that combines offers, coupons and loyalty to form an interoperable end-to-end solution; beneficial to merchants, manufacturers and wider service provider ecosystems.

“This document bridges that gap as it outlines an architecture model and the component interfaces that can be adopted to produce a common approach for coupon and loyalty transactions using mobile handsets.”