According to the latest report “The World Market for EFT-POS Terminals & Contactless Readers” from IMS Research, a UK-based supplier of market research for the electronics industry, the number of contactless-enabled points of sale (POS) in existence will increase by over 12.5m by the end of 2013.
The report said that card vendors and banks are now issuing more and more contactless cards and consumer awareness is starting to grow in a number of countries. This in turn is leading to more demand from merchants for contactless-enabled EFT-POS terminals.
Reportedly, contactless specialists, such as OTI and ViVOtech, are seeing greater demand for their contactless readers in a growing number of markets. Similarly secure card acceptance companies, such as Hypercom, Ingenico and VeriFone, are increasingly rolling out contactless across their product ranges.
John Devlin, director of IMS Research, said: “After a downward blip in late 2008 and the first half of 2009, the overall market is now returning to growth. The Retail and Hospitality sectors that have been hardest hit are showing signs that the market bottomed out earlier this year. Those companies that have managed the economic downturn well are starting to invest in new technologies rather than just replacing essential POS equipment.
“As the market picks up it will be a case of merchants working harder to differentiate themselves from their competition. Accepting new and interesting means of payment, in the form of contactless cards, fobs and NFC/mobile payments, is a key part of this. In addition to greater customer convenience and an improved experience the merchants will also find that contactless benefits them with faster transaction speeds and improved footfall.”
