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Smart Transaction Systems, Inc. today announced plans to use Hypercom Corp.'s Mobile Network service to enable mobile merchants to accept gift and loyalty cards at stadiums, festivals and other outdoor events. Smart Transaction Systems will use Hypercom's Mobile Network service in combination with hand-held wireless point-of-sale terminals to enable mobile merchants to accept prepaid gift or loyalty cards virtually anywhere within sporting events, concerts, arenas or fairgrounds. Smart Transaction Systems, a Boulder-Colo.-based provider of card-based payment systems and customer loyalty programs, has tested the service at the Los Angeles-based Staples Center and plans to offer it to clients that own or operate teams, events and facilities. The program enables consumers to redeem gift and loyalty cards for food, merchandise and prizes at events. Hypercom says Smart Transaction Systems is the first company to announce it will use the its mobile-network service since the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based payment-terminal company introduced it about a year ago. "More sports-team franchises and concert-promotion companies are offering gift and loyalty card programs, and demand is increasing for on-site gift card and loyalty card acceptance at these events," Ray Clopton, Smart Transaction Systems president, tells CardLine. He did not disclose costs. Smart Transaction Systems provides gift and loyalty card programs for the Anschutz Co.'s L.A.-based subsidiary AEG, an international sports and entertainment company which controls card programs within a variety of major arenas including the Staples Center, the Sprint Center in Kansas City, Mo. and the Prudential Center in Newark, N.J. [but Clopton did not name any specific mobile loyalty card promotions; they are in the process of marketing these new programs to their clients] Hypercom's Mobile Network operates wherever cellular GSM/GPRS service is available and transmits transaction data to Smart Transactions Systems, which authorizes it at the point of sale using secure socket layer (SSL) encryption. Mobile merchants may use the service anywhere and with any type of wireless point-of-sale terminal, which Clopton says is an advantage for the diverse types of events and loyalty programs his company supports. "We also see a lot of potential for harnessing mobile gift and loyalty cards for events that previously used paper tickets and other, less-secure cash substitutes," he says. Scott Goldthwaite, Hypercom vice president of global solutions, says taxicab and other types of transportation companies also are reviewing Hypercom's mobile network service.
