In 2011 Tesco’s Home Plus stores launched a highly-praised installation in the Seoul subway, which allowed shoppers to scan a QR code and make purchases from their mobile device. At the lab, we’d always wondered whether this concept could be extended to an NFC implementation.
Well apparently UAE carrier Etisalat had similar ideas. This week in Barcelona at Mobile World Congress, Etisalat showcased a grocery shopping solution they deployed earlier this year in the Dubai metro.
It allows you to tap a product and add it to a cart on your mobile device. Then you can pay for your purchase using Etisalat’s mobile wallet technology.
It’s a great example of the intensive amount of work going on all around the world on establishing standard practices and user experiences around mobile payments, particularly with regards to NFC. This week at MWC alone, there were big announcements along these lines from Mastercard and Visa. Meanwhile in Hall 7, there was an entire “NFC & Mobile Payments” Zone with smaller vendors trying to support the ecosystem.
