Serving Mobile Users Without The Need For NFC

By Pete Rizzo (@pete_rizzo_) 

Such is the paradox of technology: A new innovation that should eliminate consumer friction leads to new merchant challenges. Example: nearly every consumer has a mobile phone, but not all point-of-sale (POS) systems have the ability to activate and process mobile-based transactions.

Further, in many cases, upgrading a POS system will only lead to a costly and lengthy process that deters retailers from serving their increasingly mobile customer base.

Enter InComm’s Cashtie Cloud Match Service, a new solution that allows providers and retailers to accept mobile and barcode-based transactions without requiring any changes at the point of sale. Cashtie Cloud Match offers new opportunities for anyone who wants to accept transactions from loyalty apps, coupons or payments, as well as loyalty program, mobile wallet and digital coupon providers that want to expand their acceptance networks.

“Cashtie Cloud Match enables our partners to route and push back to the local terminal a transaction that looks and transacts for the POS like an established coupon or payment solution,” Thomas Cornelius, SVP at InComm, told PYMNTS.com in an interview.

Put more simply, Cashtie allows providers to instantly offer coupon solutions, including one-time-use coupons, to mobile users, without the need for NFC or other hardware or software upgrades.

For an in-depth overview of Cashtie Cloud Match and its benefits, PYMNTS.com spoke to Cornelius in an exclusive interview to learn more.

PYMNTS.com: How exactly does Cashtie Cloud Match services work?

Thomas Cornelius: First,a provider requests a barcode via the Cashtie API and identifies the type of transaction the provider wants to associate with the barcode (either a payment, coupon or loyalty transaction). The barcode is then displayed to the consumer in the provider’s mobile application, and the consumer presents the barcode on their mobile phone to a cashier to be scanned.

When the barcode is scanned from the mobile phone at the POS, the Cashtie Cloud Match Service instantly receives the transaction information and matches it with the provider.

Cashtie Cloud Match then uses the transaction details to match, in the cloud, the transaction to the specific cash register within a particular retail location where the consumer is checking out after the provider matched it to a specific consumer and responds with the transaction details for making a payment, receiving a discount or gaining loyalty points.

Cashtie then sends the provider’s intent for the transaction back to the POS either via InComm’s proprietary switching technology as part of InComm’s Enhanced Payment Platform or to any third-party switching solution used by the retailer. All of this occurs in real-time.

From a consumer’s perspective, what are the benefits of using Cashtie Cloud Match Service and what steps are you taking to drive consumer option of this product?

Cashtie is using a secure token, which ensures no personal information including sensitive payment data is transmitted at the cash register. Each time a consumer makes a payment, Cashtie issues a unique token just for that transaction and marks it as authorized, without the ability to reuse the same token for any other transaction. All sensitive data is securely exchanged in the cloud between the provider and the retailer using Cashtie Cloud Match.

Providers do not have costly one-off integrations with retailers and with that have a faster path to profitability and provide ultimately more choices for consumers.

The Cashtie API enables providers to instantly offer coupon solutions, including one-time-use coupons, any payment form without the need to wait for NFC or other hardware or software upgrades to consumers. Providing cost-efficient integration and instant gratification will allow more providers to expand their offering and leverage existing mobile app users. InComm provides a link into the POS that is standardized across multiple retailers systems and can be used by any company that is authorized by the retailer, driving more foot traffic and consumers into InComm’s retailers.

Further, all the promising opportunities of wallets are now a reality by providing an ability both for retailers and providers to understand who their customers are and invent consumers for specific behavior.

What is next for InComm? What new innovative solutions should we expect from you in the near feature?

The InComm In-Store digital team is focused on expanding our platform capabilities that allow our retailers to increase sales and our partners to connect quickly, easily and securely into a retailer’s POS system to drive foot-traffic and transactions. Recognizing that we provide our partners and retailers with technology to drive more transactions with connectivity across our network as a platform is driving all of our teams’ innovations.

We actually see new use cases and innovation for the future driven by our retailers and payment and product partners, simply using our rails, platform and APIs, and we expect this symbiotic relationship based on our platform approach to drive many more solutions that benefit retailers in the near future.