Target Corp. customers now may store gift card data electronically and make payments at the point of sale using their mobile phones.
With the Minneapolis-based retailer’s Mobile GiftCard service, announced Tuesday, consumers use a phone’s browser to access Target’s Web site, where they may create a PIN-protected account and enroll their gift cards. The site can store details on multiple cards.
When participating customers want to make a purchase, they access the site, log in and decide which enrolled card they want to use. The site then creates a barcode that is displayed on the phone’s screen, and the Target employee scans the code to initiate the transaction.
“Mobile devices are becoming a key part of our guest’s lives, and we wanted to make their lives easier,” says Sara Moore, a Target spokesperson.
The service is similar to one Starbucks Corp. is testing at 16 stores in Silicon Valley and Seattle, though that system uses an application for Apple Inc.’s iPhone. The Target service works on any mobile phone with a browser and is usable at all 1,740 of the company’s U.S. stores, Moore says.
“Target is the first major retailer with the ability to scan mobile barcodes in all of its stores,” the company said in a news release.
Target tested the technology last month with employees, including Moore. “I thought it was a neat technology,” and the functions were easy to access while shopping, she says.
Payments companies long have touted the concept of turning mobile phones into digital wallets that can store multiple credit and debit card accounts and be used to initiate purchases at the point of sale. However, the concept most often discussed is Near Field Communication, a contactless technology that, unlike in cards, enables chips in mobile phones to also download information, such as coupons or links to movie trailers, from other NFC chips embedded in posters or other media.
NFC has been widely tested all over the world but is not yet commercially available.
Meantime, alternative concepts such as mobile barcodes are catching on. The Starbucks barcode system uses software from mFoundry Inc.
Moore did not know whether Target is collaborating with a payments-technology vendor or developed the system internally.
