M&S partners with Visa, 644 UK stores now equipped with contactless payments
10 May, 2013
category: Contactless
Marks & Spencer (M&S), the British retailer headquartered in the Westminster, has completed the roll out of contactless payments to 644 of its UK stores, including its railway and airport franchise stores.
Now one of the UK’s leading contactless retailers, M&S processes more than 230,000 contactless transactions every week. The technology, provided by Visa Europe, will enable consumers to simply touch the reader with their contactless cards, or enabled mobile phones to pay for goods under £20 without the need to enter a PIN.
The M&S contactless roll-out followed a successful trial in 25 London stores last summer. Contactless payment continues to grow in popularity, with around one in seven M&S card transactions under £20 now completed by this method. The service is proving particularly popular with busy customers on the move, with a quarter of contactless payments processed at self checkout points in the Food Halls.
London stores continue to have the highest levels of contactless transactions. However, M&S said it also is seeing increasing use of contactless cards in other busy urban centers including Manchester, Croydon and Reading.
In addition to the 26.4 million contactless Visa cards, there are over 200,000 contactless acceptance points in the UK today. The number of terminals in Europe is increasing at a rate of approximately 10,000 per month, with more than 750,000 terminals across Europe today. Visa Europe predicts there will be over 33 million contactless cards in the UK by the end the year.