Samsung Expands Partnerships To Strengthen Its POS Leadership Role

By Christine Kern, contributing writer

Samsung Pay partners with global POS providers to accelerate mobile payments adoption

Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd has announced the creation of new partnerships with the world’s largest POS makers, including Verifone (NYSE: PAY), Ingenico Group, First Data and Clover, PAX Technology, Equinox, ID TECH, MagTek, USA ePay and OTI Global, as part of an effort to accelerate mobile payment adoption by ensuring the best possible user experience at merchants’ point-of-sale (POS) systems during checkout.

This is no small feat, given that, despite increasingly tough economic conditions, The Retail PC-POS market managed to overcome increasing difficult economic challenges and expand across the Europe/Middle East/Africa region in 2015, rising 5.2 percent over 2014, according to new research from IHL Group.  For 2016, the company anticipates a 4.1 percent increase in total shipments thanks to strength in Germany, UK, Italy and Scandinavia as they continue to modernize systems.

Last Fall, Samsung Pay became available for phones running on the Verizon network, the leading wireless carrier in the United States. And just 10 days after it announced support for the new payment platform, Verizon also rolled out updates to Verizon devices that enable Samsung Pay, according to Android Central. Samsung Pay entered the market in competition with Apple Pay and Android Pay, all of which allow customers to complete transactions by merely waving a smartphone in front of a payment terminal instead of swiping a credit card, as Innovative Retail Technologies reported.

But Samsung Pay is the only contactless payment solution that works at over 90 percent of the top 250 retailers and the vast majority of merchants, including small, local businesses.

Consumers love Samsung Pay because it is fast, safe, and so widely accepted by merchants everywhere” said Sang Ahn, Chief Commercial Officer Samsung Pay, Inc. “We are excited to be working with our POS partners to accelerate the adoption of mobile payments and bring greater innovation into the marketplace.”

Samsung Pay is working with the largest POS makers to achieve universal merchant acceptance, a critical step to consumer adoption. Samsung Pay uses both Near Field Communication (NFC) and Magnetic Secure Transmission (MST) technology, enabling users to pay with Samsung Pay almost anywhere they can swipe or tap a card. These new partnerships are designed to systematically test and validate different POS systems in the field to ensure maximum compatibility and universal acceptance for Samsung Pay, according to the company statement.