It seems the worlds of mobile payments and petrol stations collide for the second time this week. First Visa partnered with Chevron to launch a mobile payments programme at more than 20 Chevron-branded stations, accepting any NFC payment service.
MasterCard following suit
Now it seems MasterCard is following suit by forming a global partnership with mobile commerce provider P97 to allow consumers to find, buy and save on gasoline and convenience store purchases through their mobile phones.
Huge demand
The petrol station market is unsurprisingly a very ripe market for payment innovation, last year, in the US alone, consumers pumped more than 135 billion gallons of gasoline. MasterCard believes this huge demand for energy will mean fuel companies and store operators will be looking for ways to differentiate their services and build loyalty among their customers.
The company says its fuel solution will provide a range of its marketing and technical assets, and will utilize P97’s PetroZone mobile commerce platform to integrate to existing gas station infrastructure.
The new solution will enable fuel companies to develop mobile apps for consumers to search for and navigate to the nearest or preferred gas station, make fast and simple mobile payments at the pump and convenience store, and receive personalised offers for in-store purchases.
Consumer ‘not thinking about payment’
“We know that when a consumer pulls up to the pump, they are not thinking about making a payment. They just want to get what they need and go as fast as possible,” said Felix Marx, executive vice president of Mobile Transaction Solutions at MasterCard.
Whitepapers
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