Contactless works when handled with care

Shock horror! A contactless story which is not just a case of all hype and no substance. I still say that lots more work needs to be done to sell this way of paying to the general public, but Marks & Spencer is a good example of how it should be done. The retailer has completed a roll-out to 644 of its UK stores, including its railway and airport franchise stores. It is processing over 230,000 contactless transactions every week. Fourteen per cent of M&S card transactions under £20 are now completed by this method and a quarter are processed at self-checkout points in the Food Halls. 

The roll-out followed a trial in 25 London stores last summer. Although London continues to have the highest levels of contactless transactions, M&S is seeing increasing use of these cards in other busy urban centres including Manchester, Croydon and Reading. Richard Cooke, store manager at M&S Finsbury Pavement, which completes around one in three of its card transactions under £20 by contactless, comments: "In busy central stores that receive a huge lunch time rush, contactless payment is helping to revolutionise the customer experience. Self- check out tills are already very popular, but contactless helps reduce queue times even further, giving customers a payment option that’s even quicker than cash."

Now, all we need is more retailers getting onboard in similarly enthusiastic fashion and more British banks rolling out cards to all their customers and, hey presto, we've got momentum, baby (as someone once sang). Simples.