‘Look, ma, no POS’: Zapper launches tap-on-phone payments

Mobile payments and loyalty rewards platform Zapper has launch tap-on-phone payments, allowing consumers to pay with a tap of their smartphones, irrespective of whether or not they have the Zapper app.

The company said on Tuesday that the move does away with the need for additional point-of-sale hardware. Merchants must be using an NFC-enabled Android (version 9.0 or later) smartphone, though consumers can use mobile wallets on both Android and iOS, including Apple Pay, Samsung Pay and Garmin Pay, to make payments.

“The consumer simply taps the physical card or mobile device on the merchant’s compatible Android smartphone,” said Zapper CEO Brett White in a statement.

The upgrade also supports “Pin on glass” functionality, which means consumers who have exceeded their verification limit can “safely enter their Pin on the merchant’s Android smartphone and proceed with their transaction in the same manner as they would on a normal Pin-entry device when checking out”, Zapper said.

“Previously, our merchant app was primarily a tool for our merchants to get their payment confirmation feeds through a push notification, in real time, eliminating the need to wait for an SMS or e-mail, or logging into the merchant portal online. It also allowed merchants to generate a QR code or payment link quickly and easily. Now the app also turns the merchant’s phone into a point-of-sale device without the need for any additional peripheral hardware,” White said.

“Our Zapper Merchant app will still enable shoppers to easily scan and pay the app-generated Zapper QR code or alternatively tap and pay using their physical bank card or mobile wallets. The primary aim of our latest offering is to ensure our merchants can accept as many payment methods as possible,” he said.

Zapper said the tap-on-phone solution “meets the stringent requirements of physical point-of-sale devices, and consumers will benefit by not needing to hand over their cards to the merchant”.  – © 2022 NewsCentral Media