Samsung Pay expands POS partnerships to accelerate mobile payment adoption

Dive Brief:

Samsung Electronics is increasing its partnerships with major global point-of-sales systems, inking new deals with Verifone, Ingenico Group, First Data and Clover, PAX Technology, Equinox, ID TECH, MagTek, USA ePay and OTI Global in an effort to accelerate mobile payments through its Samsung Pay mobile wallet.
Samsung Pay uses both Near Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technologies so that it can be used in secure transactions for new EMV chip and NFC terminals as well as traditional, magnetic strip terminals, which sharply increases the number of POS systems that can accept it.
Samsung says the Samsung Pay wallet works faster than using a chip card, and claims it’s safer than swiping a mag-stripe card because tokenization protects against copy and reuse, even at mag-stripe-only terminals.

Dive Insight:

Samsung made a bet on the magnetic POS technology developed Boston-based startup LoopPay when the software, which emits a signal, called magnetic secure transmission (MST) that mimics the magnetic strip on credit cards, was still in its Kickstarter phase.

Last year, Samsung acquired LoopPay's technology outright, a move based on the recognition that most mobile payments require consumers to significantly change their payment habits. Samsung Pay works with legacy POS systems—lending added security and benefits like loyalty perks at the same time.

That's no guarantee that Samsung Pay will have any advantage in mobile payments in the long run. But it does present another option for consumers at a time when EMV cards have been slow to be adopted by consumers and retailers alike, and proven to be cumbersome when they are used.

“Consumers love Samsung Pay because it is fast, safe, and so widely accepted by merchants everywhere,” Sang Ahn, Samsung Pay chief commercial officer, said in a statement. “We are excited to be working with our POS partners to accelerate the adoption of mobile payments and bring greater innovation into the marketplace.”

In addition to expanding its partnerships with POS systems, Samsung must also continue to ensure that consumers are aware of Pay services. The electronics giant has made a television advertising push aimed squarely at rival Apple Pay with an ad in which comedian Hannibal Buress whips out his phone to use Samsung Pay and he tells deli workers that it “kind of works everywhere," even on "janky" registers that only take swipe cards.