Target Quietly Begins Testing CurrentC In Some Of Its Stores
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Target using employees in some stores to beta test the new payment system.
Target, one of the founders of MCX’s CurrentC mobile payment effort, has been using its employees to test the program, according to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune.
The Star-Tribune quoted Target spokesman Eddie Baeb , who said that some Target headquarters employees had been testing CurrentC “in a couple of dozen Target stores around the Twin Cities” and that ““Right now, it’s in a very early test phase.”
Merchant Customer Exchange is the only merchant-owned mobile commerce network built to streamline the customer shopping experience across all major retail verticals, according to their website.
The company’s aim has been to find a simple and secure way for customers to make purchases in stores easily with their smartphones, since competing mobile wallets have not yet established a significant hold on the market.
Target was one of the first members of the Merchant Customer Exchange when it was formed in 2011. Best Buy followed in 2012.
Currently, Target does not accommodate Apple Pay in its stores, in part because of its agreement with CurrentC, but also because Target does not have the contactless terminals in place that are necessary for processing NFC payments, which Apple Pay uses. CurrentC uses QR-code based payments – not NFC payments - that do not require the installation of new equipment. Target does support Apple Pay via its iPhone app.
Baeb did tell the Star Tribune that the retailer is dedicated to adding chip-and-pin technology to its checkout lanes for better credit card security in the wake of Target’s huge data breach last year. He added that Target is “extremely enthusiastic” about Apple Pay through its mobile app.
Earlier this fall, MCX stated that it was beginning preliminary trials of CurrentC, without releasing specific details about when and where it was being tested. CurrentC is expected to be rolled out nationwide in 2015.
MCX COO Scott Rankin has mentioned that some elements of those trials—such as insisting that shoppers provide a Social Security number and allow the system to take a photograph of their driver’s license—may not be retained if the service eventually launches.
Employee-driven beta testing may help overcome some of the resistance due to privacy issues for CurrentC and Target. It is likely that employees will be more apt to trust fellow employees than strangers. Still, it is a beta test, and the company may find other bugs that need to be addressed or reconfigured before the full roll-out in 2015.
Recently, Rite Aid and CVS boycotted the use of Apple Pay in their stores, ostensibly because they belong to Merchant Customer Exchange, raising questions about its exclusivity agreements.
“When merchants choose to work with MCX, they choose to do so exclusively and we’re proud of the long list of merchants who have partnered with us,” the exchange said on its website, where it lists about 60 retailers that are members.
According to the blog post MCX does not charge members fines if they decide to stop working with the payment group, despite what some media reports have stated.