Tap on Mobile: the SoftPoS M-POC solution for mobility

The emergence of the SoftPoS technology, or "Software Point of Sale", marks a real revolution in the mobile payments sector. This solution allows merchants to accept card payments directly on smartphones and tablets, without requiring additional hardware. This innovation, which meets the growing demand for contactless and secure transactions, is perfectly in line with the modernisation of mobility services. In this sector, SoftPoS offers Mobility operators increased flexibility to deploy efficient and accessible payment solutions, while enriching the user experience.

Worldline integrated SoftPoS technology with the launch of its Tap on Mobile offer in 2022, which quickly met with great success on the market. M-POC certified, it stands out as one of the few solutions to offer payment acceptance on smart devices while guaranteeing the highest security standards set by the PCI standard. Worldline Tap on Mobile is available on Android and iOS.

This technology is starting to spread rapidly, particularly for payment collection services in the goods distribution sector. A typical example is the delivery of parcels with payment upon receipt of the goods. It is on this same principle that it is starting to be deployed in the mobility sector. Below are the three main use cases in the sector:

• The first, which is already well established, consists of equipping ticket sellers on the platform with smartphones, allowing them to sell tickets to customers on the spot. Similarly, on board trains, ticket inspectors regularise passengers and offer additional services while collecting payments on their existing devices. The characteristic of this use case is that the person paying is interacting with an agent. Worldline's Tap on Mobile solution is widely deployed in Europe with rail and road transport operators and is perfectly suited to this use case.

• The second case, which Worldline is starting to deploy thanks to its recent M-POC certification, concerns so-called "semi-attended" environments. The characteristic of this use case is that the person is facing a sales machine (a TVM – Ticket Vending Machine), but that this TVM is supervised by a physical person. A concrete example is the supermarket checkout, where an agent supervises 5 to 10 stations. Worldline is currently working on several pilots to deploy Tap on Mobile in these environments.

• The third, more prospective case will concern all terminals or "readers" deployed in Open Payment (for Mass Transit) validators that are now found in the major transport networks in Europe. Current certifications do not yet allow this operation. Indeed, in this use case, the validation equipment, whether on board or on the platform, is not under the supervision of an agent of the transport operator. The reader integrated into the validator is today a payment terminal, admittedly physically a little different from the traditional POS or TVM, but identical from a certification point of view. In the latter case, SoftPoS technology could therefore be deployed on the validator, which would simplify the certification processes and reduce the cost of validators. But we are not there yet.

In conclusion, our Worldline Tap on Mobile offer represents an innovative and efficient solution to meet the growing needs of the mobility sector in terms of payment. Do not hesitate to contact me to organise a demonstration to discover all the possibilities it can offer you!