Merchant Customer Exchange Adds New Retailers

The retailers' mobile payments initiative, Merchant Customer Exchange, has been adding to its ranks.

Southwest Airlines, Pacific Convenience & Fuels LLC, RaceTrac and Brinker International Inc. have joined the retailer-driven effort to establish a mobile wallet for merchants and consumers, the Irving, Texas-based MCX announced May 9. Brinker is the parent company of Chili’s Grill & Bar and Maggiano’s Little Italy.

MCX was established in August of 2012 as a joint venture of major retailers, with the likes of Wal-Mart Stores Inc., Target Corp., CVS Caremark Corp. and 7-Eleven Inc. among its members. Its mission has been to establish a mobile payment system for all merchant members.

MCX is opting initially for a cloud-based network, using QR codes to display payment information at the point of sale. It plans for its mobile wallet app to work as part of a merchant’s current mobile shopping app.

Retailers involved in MCX, including Dunkin’ Brands and Lowes, have indicated that maintaining control of customer data is a vital part of their mobile-wallet plans.

MCX also announced last month it would work with Gemalto's technology.

Its latest retail members join other recently added companies, including Dick’s Sporting Goods, Hobby Lobby Stores Inc., Meijer, QuikTrip and Wawa, which were announced as part of MCX in January.
MCX now boasts of 30-plus merchants with more than 700 million payment and other customer accounts, MCX states in a press release.