No wallet? No problem. One day soon, we could be paying with any consumer gadget, accessory or wearable device.
Building on last year’s announcement of its Commerce for Every Device programme, MasterCard has formed a partnership with consumer electronics and financial software company Coin to bring credit card payments to fitness bands, smartwatches and other wearable devices.
Initially, the two companies are working with fitness tracker manufacturer Atlas Wearables, wrist-worn fitness coach maker Moov and smartwatch designer Omate to add payment technology to their products.
Coin will provide hardware and software that is integrated with the MasterCard Digital Enablement Service and can be embedded into devices, enabling manufacturers to quickly and easily implement payment functionality into their consumer products.
For consumers, this new technology means that you don’t always need to carry your wallet or phone if you want to buy something. And if you’re out for a run or at the gym, you can just use the fitness band you’re already wearing to make a payment.
“The great thing about the MasterCard program is that we are adding payment functionality to items that consumers are already using — fitness bands, jewellery, clothing, watches,” said Sherri Haymond, senior vice president of Digital Payments at MasterCard. “This makes the products more useful for consumers and enhances the value device manufacturers can deliver to their customers. Coin complements that approach and enables us to reach an expanded set of device partners.”
Laurent Le Pen, founder and CEO of Omate, described payment as “the ultimate step for the global adoption of wearables” and said that MasterCard and Coin are offering a simple backend solution that is compliant with financial standards.
Tags: wearables
