Make room for another mobile pay app—if you’re in France that is. Consumers there will have a new payment method called Lyf Pay. As the following article reports, the new integrated app is a joint venture between the grocery chain Carrefour and major bank, BNP Paribas, and receives support from other players including Mastercard.
Supermarket giant Carrefour and French bank BNP Paribas have unveiled a new QR code-based mobile payment platform that will let customers make in-store, online and peer-to-peer (P2P) mobile payments as well as store loyalty cards, coupons and special offers on their mobile device. The service will be rolled out across France this month with support from Crédit Mutuel, Auchan, Mastercard, Oney and Total.
Lyf Pay is the result of the merger between BNP Paribas’ Wa! and Carrefour’s Fivory electronic wallets in October 2016, which promised to create a “unified, universal mobile payment solution” designed to “meet the customer’s desire for simplicity, convenience and personalisation”.
“Lyf Pay application — available for all smartphones as of 18 May — is set to bring greater convenience and simplicity in consumers’ day-to-day life,” Carrefour says.
“Developed in conjunction with retailers and with the customer firmly in mind, Lyf Pay covers an extremely broad set of needs — in-store payments ranging from small local shops to large retail chains; online shopping; friends and family payments and even charitable donations.
“By integrating payment cards, loyalty cards and coupons and displaying news flashes from users’ favourite shops alerting them to available special offers and providing information on their expenditure, this new app goes a long way to creating a highly intimate relationship with the consumers it serves.”
Lyf Pay has been loaded with integrated features and payment options, which should drive early consumer adoption across its large network of French merchants of all sizes. The pay app starts with an already established customer base familiar with retailers and other businesses that will accept Lyf Pay. Other mobile features will be person-to-person (P2P) payments as well as charitable donation options. From here it looks like Lyf Pay strikes a chord with consumers who want added value services and engaging reasons to use a mobile app versus their plastic payment cards. We will find out in short order.
Overview by Raymond Pucci, Associate Director, Research Services at Mercator Advisory Group
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