Dublin-based Graham O'Sullivan Restaurants has contracted retail software specialist Escher Group to deliver an NFC- and QR-based payments and rewards service that uses NFC's peer-to-peer (P2P) capabilities.

GRAHAM O'SULLIVAN: Using P2P for restaurant loyalty and payments

The solution works with any Android NFC phone and uses Android Beam to send the customer's identity from the phone to the retailer's point-of-sale terminal, says Escher, and can be used "to allow closed loop payment, loyalty and coupon redemption."

"This is an over-the-top application and for this reason, no agreement is required with the mobile network operator as access to the secure element is not required," the company adds.

"This ground-breaking solution will vastly improve the customer experience both in and out of the store," says Felim Meade, managing director of the Graham O'Sullivan Restaurants chain. "It will promote greater interaction with this much loved classic Irish restaurant brand, and ultimately increase customer loyalty and support new customer acquisition.

"We wanted to introduce something that was very innovative and offer our customers something really unique in the marketplace," Meade adds. "Escher understood what we wanted from the beginning and has delivered a solution which beats anything available anywhere in the world today."