Zapa Selects Postilion for Contactless Payments Task

Zapa Technology has chosen Postilion, a global provider of payments software solutions, to provide the core payments platform for its new mobile prepaid top-up, loyalty, and gift card processing services for European retailers. Zapa will make use of contactless and near field communication (NFC) technologies to drive customer acquisition and improve the consumer experience.
To differentiate its service offering, Zapa has introduced ZAPA TAG, an NFC ‘sticker’ placed inside or outside the mobile phone, which collects loyalty points or holds stored value. Consumers need only wave an enabled phone across the ZAPA terminal, located at participating retailers’ points of sale (POS), to redeem an offer, access a service, or collect loyalty points. Postilion will enable Zapa to centrally manage all loyalty points and contactless transactions and provide detailed reports for usage analysis. With Postilion, Zapa will also be able to add new payment services, as retailers diversify from prepaid top-up into other offerings, such as gift cards, and lottery ticket purchases.
Zapa is launching its services by seeding POS infrastructure to strategic retailers and providing their customers with ZAPA TAGs. Zapa is focusing initially on the Irish market, and aims to ignite consumer demand, turning the desire for contactless convenience into tangible business value for retailers. By doing so, it hopes to position Ireland as an early adopter of contactless and NFC technologies, setting a positive example for the rest of Europe.
The Zapa system will be available as a white-label service to retailers in Ireland, the UK, and continental Europe, providing them with a fast and cost-effective alternative to in-house contactless payments development. Zapa anticipates that loyalty applications will drive the initial push, with an emphasis on creating a universal system to support multiple retailers. In this scenario, a single ZAPA TAG would access separate branded wallets on the customer’s mobile display, showing loyalty points accrued from each retailer.
“We chose Postilion because we wanted to clearly differentiate Zapa as a European payments innovator,” explains John Nagle, CEO of Zapa Technology. “Contactless is still a relatively new concept for most retailers, so it was important to provide them with the assurance that it is powered by Postilion’s high performing, secure payments platform.”
Nagle adds that features such as online and mobile alerts to advertise in-store promotions, mobile-based incentives to encourage foot traffic, and interactive customer loyalty programs tailored to individual consumer spending patterns, will provide additional benefits for retailers using Zapa payments services.

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Informative article on Contactless Payment