Barclays makes mobile payment and purchasing easy with ‘mobile checkout’ and ‘buy it’

Barclays has launched two new features within its award winning mobile app, Barclays Pingit; ‘mobile checkout’, a payment feature for quick and easy purchases from a mobile web or app checkout page; and ‘buy it’, which bridges the gap between advertising and sales by enabling consumers to purchase advertised goods and services immediately.

Businesses, such as retailers, are now able to offer their customers two new mobile payment solutions which provide a fast, easy and secure way to pay for goods and services.

Unlike many alternative payment methods, ‘mobile checkout’ is optimised for a mobile experience, with only a few clicks required to make an instant settlement via a ‘Pay with Barclays Pingit’ button. It eradicates the need for the entry of long or large amounts of personal details, which can be challenging and time consuming on small handsets.

Mike Walters, Head of UK Corporate Payments at Barclays said: “For mobile enabled businesses, this is a great way to increase sales conversion by reducing payment input errors and increased consumer assurance at checkout. For new players to the market, it is an easy, low risk way to enter into mobile commerce.”

The advent of the ‘buy it’ feature on Barclays Pingit enables instant purchases from traditional advertising collateral. By logging onto Barclays Pingit, consumers can buy products direct from an advert and other marketing collateral by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code. Barclays Pingit displays the product information – price, merchant information, delivery information and stock levels. Confirming these details enables a Barclays Pingit user to initiate an instant purchase, which can be delivered to a chosen address. Once confirmed, the customer receives a confirmatory SMS and email.

For businesses this process can transform their adverts into a highly accessible and convenient sales channel. Additionally, it increases the value of their existing assets, for example, by enabling people to buy from window displays, or from unmanned display stands, 24x7. Businesses can also encourage immediate sale of items with marketing incentives such as limited time offers, offers on new products and limited stock offers. The feature can also help businesses evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign by tracking adverts that are driving sales.

Both ‘mobile checkout’ and ‘buy it’, demonstrate Barclays commitment in helping its clients grow their business through new growth channels, and helping them to navigate the emerging mobile payments, m-commerce and technology landscape.

Mike Walters adds: “Mobile commerce has grown more than 250% over the last two years and it is important that businesses provide consumers with a convenient and easy payment method through this channel.”

‘Mobile checkout’ and ‘buy it’, can also play a significant role in increasing sales by improving the mobile customer experience, encouraging customers to complete their sale transaction.

Research by Harris Interactive has shown that while 68% of mobile and tablet owners have tried to make a purchase on a mobile or tablet, as many as two-thirds of those have abandoned the purchase due to issues with the payment platform. Many of the payment solutions in the market today have not been optimised for an m-commerce environment.

Notes to Editors:

* Launched in February last year, Barclays Pingit was the UK’s first service to facilitate the instant payment and receipt of money using mobile phone numbers to anyone with a UK current account and UK mobile phone number, without the need to share bank details. Using the Faster Payments Scheme, payments are immediate and the app is free to use for retail customers of any UK bank.

* Barclays Pingit for corporates was launched in May 2012, and is being used by businesses across multiple sectors for payment collections, including Severn Trent, Plymouth University, Macmillan Cancer Support, Tui Specialist Holiday Group.

* The Barclays Pingit app works with Android 2.2 and above, IOS 4.2 and above, and Blackberry OS 4.6 and above.

For further information about Barclays Corporate Banking, please visit our website www.barclayscorporate.com

About Barclays

Barclays is a major global financial services provider engaged in personal banking, credit cards, corporate and investment banking and wealth and investment management with an extensive international presence in Europe, the Americas, Africa and Asia. Barclays’ purpose is to help people achieve their ambitions – in the right way.

With over 300 years of history and expertise in banking, Barclays operates in over 50 countries and employs approximately 140,000 people. Barclays moves, lends, invests and protects money for customers and clients worldwide.
For further information about Barclays, please visit our website www.barclays.com.