Brands to ramp up NFC consumer education programmes

Just one fifth (20%) of contactless card owners have ever used their cards to make a contactless payment, according to YouGov’s Mobile Wallet study. Only 5% of those owners use their cards for contactless transactions more than once a week.

Barclaycard, which alongside parent brand Barclays has the highest share of the contactless market, with 71% of all NFC payment cards, will look to increase awareness of the technology by launching a series of integrated marketing campaigns to educate consumers about its benefits as a cash replacement.

Tom Gregory, Barclaycard’s head of digital payments, says: “We have seen a doubling in contactless transactions in the last year but it’s nowhere near where we’d like to be. Awareness is the key metric we need to drive this year and we want to continue to lead and drive the [entire contactless] market.”

He adds that despite Barclays having the stronghold of the contactless market, the brand is not “big enough” to change consumer purchasing behaviour alone and that retailers, credit and debit card brands, mobile manufacturers, operators and Google must align together as an industry to promote the technology.

McDonald’s is the most recognised contactless payment retailer, but only a minority (8%) of the British population know that consumers can use NFC technology to wave and pay for products at its restaurants, according to the YouGov study.

The fast food outlet will soon be expanding its in-store contactless communications programme to feature a strip on its tills to promote the fact that consumers can swipe their NFC-enabled cards to pay more conveniently.

Waitrose is thought to be rolling out contactless terminals across all its stores by the end of the year in a bid to speed up transaction times.

BlackBerry is also readying a range of consumer education campaigns about contactless payment in the coming months after predicting that 2012 will be the “year of NFC”.

For financial services brands such as Barclaycard, an increase in use of contactless could increase transaction revenue, while retailers want to boost service by reducing waiting times.

The contactless industry is in line for a major boost around the London 2012 Olympics, which has been predicted by a number of brands and commentators to be the “first contactless Olympics”.

Official sponsors Visa and Lloyds TSB are partnering to launch an “Olympics phone” with in-built contactless technology as part of the strategy to encourage consumers to swipe and pay for items around the Olympic site rather than use cash.

Transport for London also set out a strategy last year to implement contactless credit and debit card payment facilities across the entire bus, Tube, Docklands Light Railway, tram and Overground network by the end of 2012.