The NFC Forum announced that consumers could soon conduct multiple functions in a single contactless transaction.
The near-field communication (NFC) standard makes tap-and-go payments possible for most of the world’s 4.5 billion smartphone users. According to the Forum, which includes experts from Apple, Google, Sony, and others, multi-purpose tap will harness NFC’s ability to both read and write data across a connection.
A customer purchasing alcohol, for instance, could verify their age, purchase a product, earn loyalty points, and receive a digital receipt in a single tap. The Forum also touted the tech’s ability to transform mass transit; multi-purpose tap could be used for both purchasing and validating tickets in a single location.
The New Gold
The NFC Forum emphasized how multi-purpose tap could blend payments and loyalty programs. A customer could pay at the point of sale and their rewards account would automatically receive relevant discounts and loyalty points. Merchants could use multi-tap NFC to send targeted ads to their customers. The tech also gives retailers access to a wealth of consumer shopping data.
“Customer data is the new ‘gold’ as industry leaders look to map and understand spending habits,” the NFC Forum wrote. “Connected and dynamic loyalty programs enable merchants to monitor trends, allowing them to be agile and make informed decisions that help them meet the needs and wants of their customer base. In turn, this can help drive high-value behaviors and profitable spend.”
The Ideation Stage
The technology’s ability to mine consumer data from their devices raises privacy concerns that the Forum didn’t address in their report. Those concerns are magnified by the increasing amount of data that consumers store in digital wallets, including their government-issued identification.
Multi-purpose tap NFC is still a developing technology, however, and the Forum called on the community to offer insights.
“While multi-purpose tap is undoubtedly an exciting prospect that looks set to transform how our devices interact with each other, it is important to recognize that it is still in the ideation stage,” the Forum wrote. “NFC Forum is carefully evaluating the requirements of each market that multi-purpose tap stands to benefit to ensure that its unique value is accentuated as needed for each individual use case.”