Zapa taps ViVOtech for NFC mobile loyalty, gift card service

Mobile payments services provider ViVOtech has won a contract from Irish Near Field Communication (NFC) technology start-up Zapa Technology. Zapa selected ViVOtech's loyalty and prepaid platform for its mobile loyalty and gift card processing services for European retailers. The loyalty or prepaid accounts enabled by ViVOtech's mLoyalty platform and its contactless technology will first reside on a Zapa tag sticker that can be placed inside or outside a mobile phone. In the near future, customers will also be able to use NFC-enabled mobile phones to download their account information using ViVOtech's OTA provisioning software. A single Zapa tag can function as a loyalty card for multiple retailers. The multiple retailer loyalty schemes are hosted centrally on ViVOtech's mLoyalty server software, and managed by Zapa to offer new services in the future. To make loyalty or payment transactions, consumers should tap the Zapa tag affixed to the back of the phone against the Zapa-branded contactless payment reader at participating retailers. They can then earn product-based loyalty, redeem coupons or collect loyalty points enabled by ViVOtech's mLoyalty platform. Zapa will offer these services by seeding the POS infrastructure of strategic retailers and providing their customers with its tags. The Zapa system will also be available to retailers in the UK and continental Europe, providing them with an alternative to in-house contactless loyalty development.