Spar Netherlands has announced that it is launching mobile payments with Dutch bank ABN AMRO.
Shoppers can make payments through the bank's Tikkie app across all its stores in the Netherlands. Spar will be the first retailer in the country to offer payment via the app.
Commenting on the announcement, Freek de Steewinkel, the product manager of Tikkie for ABN AMRO, said, "More than three million people now use Tikkie," with the app registering a record-breaking week last May, with 650,000 requests.
On the partnership, de Steewinkel added, "With Tikkie, Spar store owners can offer their customers an extra opportunity to pay the way they want."
The sales process is relatively simple. A QR code displayed during checkout must be scanned by the customer using the Tikkie app or a QR scanner, in order to be able to pay.
A European Trend
While it has been touted for a long time, mobile payment has only recently started to grow significantly in various European countries. In March, Auchan launched a new mobile payment app in Italy, followed by Carrefour launching its own mobile payment app in France a few days after.
Whereas those retail groups chose to develop their own solution, others, such as Metro, opted to work with their existing mobile payment platforms.
There is no single pan-European leader in mobile payments at the moment, but Tikkie is in expansion mode, having recently expanded its operations to Germany.
© 2018 European Supermarket Magazine – your source for the latest retail news. Article by Matthieu Chassain. Click subscribe to sign up to ESM: European Supermarket Magazine.
