The purpose of this mobile payment solution is to simplify POS payments by offering customers an easy, fast and secure means to make payments using their mobile phones, already a day-to-day companion. This kind of payment relies on a payment application based on bank card technology, installed on the customer’s mobile phone SIM card and on NFC (Near Field Communication) contactless technology, a very short-range radio technology used to exchange data at a distance of a few centimetres. This payment solution is interoperable and complies with international Visa and Mastercard standards.
Photo of Valerie Vogler, BNP Paribas and Xavier de Lavit.
Xavier de Lavit
Direction Financiére
Leroy Merlin France is today the leader on the French DIY market, in home and lifetstyle improvements. Their ambition is to help each inhabitant to dream of his future home and to fulfil his dreams.
A company which has constantly grown over the past 20 years, in 2010 Leroy Merlin had 19,308 employees, 111 integrated plus five franchised stores, 3,156 suppliers and two logistical multi-modal platforms in Dourges and Valence.
in partnership with
The client downloads the application to his NFC mobile phone and registers on the mobile payment service at his bank. The merchant uses NFC compliant POS terminals at the check-out. For transactions below €20, the client places his mobile phone next to the NFC POS terminal. No PIN input is required and the payment is completed with a single gesture. For payments above €20, a PIN input on the mobile is required after it is presented to the NFC POS terminal. In the future, the PIN can be input while the customer is queuing at the check-out. As Xavier de Lavit explains:
“The project took a total of two years from inception to the first contactless payments, in early April 2011.”
The project itself has been led internally by Leroy Merlin, together with its long term partners, BNP Paribas and Wynid.
BNP Paribas participated in the project both through its ‘KIX’ service (bank solution for mobile payments for mobile users) and through the implementation of the contactless payment project of Leroy Merlin. Wynid, the payment terminal provider, has implemented the NFC (Near Field Communication) solution installed in the payment terminals of Leroy Merlin.
“Leroy Merlin is the first large retailer to offer a contactless mobile payment option in its integrated ePOS solution (part of the ‘Nice Ville Sans Contact’ pilot initiative, the first city-wide contactless experience).”
The facilitated checkout process has been confirmed and the first transactions were very well received by the pilot clients. Compared to a regular POS payment, the end-to-end security of the process is maintained; mobile phones always follow their owners who soon notice if they are lost and mobile phones are also locked by a PIN.
The benefits of this solution to Leroy Merlin can be summarised as follows:
- Faster check-out process.
- Convenience and security of the payment process.
- Clearly positions Leroy Merlin as an innovative retailer.
Leroy Merlin is the first large retailer to offer a contactless mobile payment option in its integrated ePOS solution (part of the “Nice Ville Sans Contact” pilot initiative, the first city-wide contactless experience). It has teamed up with BNP Paribas who was the first bank to support a large retailer implementation.
Xavier de Lavit concludes:
“This mobile payment solution is part of a wider context, covering the extended use of new technologies in sales and payment processes and on a pan-European/global scope. Another significant example is the ‘Natural Security’ project, led by a joint-venture between Leroy Merlin and BNP Paribas; this solution combines NFC technology with highly secured user authentication using biometric data.”
