OfficeMax Inc. customers may tap and pay using the Google Wallet mobile phone payment application at new checkout terminals the retailer has placed in more than 100 of its stores, the office-supply company announced Oct. 3.
Google Inc., MasterCard Worldwide, Citigroup Inc., Sprint Nextel Corp. and First Data Corp. formed the initial Google Wallet partnership, which launched the application in mid-September (
Google later announced it had reached licensing agreements with Visa Inc., American Express Co. and Discover Financial Services to eventually add their Near Field Communication-enabled payments to the wallet (
OfficeMax’s VeriFone MX880 terminals eventually will enable Google Wallet payments initiated with all payment cards and other contactless-payment devices that use radio frequency identification and NFC technology, Chris Duncan, OfficeMax vice president of direct and loyalty marketing, tells PaymentsSource.
Initially, though, only customers with a Citi MasterCard credit card equipped with PayPass contactless chip or that have Google prepaid card information stored in their Sprint Nextel mobile phone may make contactless payments in OfficeMax stores located in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., Duncan says.
Besides supporting payments, Google Wallet uses NFC when the customer taps the phone on the terminal to redeem coupons and earn benefits through OfficeMax’s MaxPerks Rewards loyalty program, Duncan adds.
“We’ve chosen to partner with Google because they have demonstrated an aptitude to be leaders in the technology space,” Duncan says
One industry analyst views the Google Wallet-enabled payment-terminal placement in OfficeMax stores as another step for Mountain View, Calif.-based Google to spread its mobile-wallet technology throughout major retail outlets.
“Google has done a lot of work to get the technology established, so now they need scale to make it work,” Brian Riley, senior research director and analyst with Needham, Mass.-based TowerGroup, tells PaymentsSource.
Naperville, Ill.-based OfficeMax, which has seen sales drop during the weak economy, benefits by showing it is aware of what consumers may want in the future, Riley adds.
But the Google Wallet application, available only through Sprint Nexus 4G phones, needs “the street credibility” because it adds value to the technology only when it is available at more locations, Riley contends (
“They have Toys ‘R Us and American Eagle, and getting OfficeMax just adds value to it because Google wants to beat PayPal, which has a long-term vision to get into the real world of brick-and-mortar retail as well,” Riley says.
Seeking technology “that is quickly being adopted by our customers” was more important to OfficeMax than being able to say it is the first office-supplies company to support NFC technology with tap-and-go payment at the company terminals, Duncan adds.
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