German Mobile Payment capital is located on the Rhine

Lahr/Kehl (Germany), 25.11.2013

In 2014, City of Kehl will become biggest project nationwide with over 60 participating retailers

Hamburg, Osnabrück, Oldenburg: In more and more pilot-cities, mobile payment is slowly moving. But Germany's upcoming capital for cashless payments with smartphones is located at the gates of the Black Forest - in the city of “Kehl am Rhein”. For the first time, customers get the choice of more than 60 retailers in a single city, which leads to a long expected consistent shopping experience. Gas stations, pharmacies or fashion houses – each sector is represented. Good things come to those who wait? Maybe so…

The foundation stone for the Mobile Payment capital is set by the conversion to a new voucher system of Kehl’s Retailers (City Forum Kehl). The "analog" paper vouchers used so far were no longer controllable and understandable at reasonable costs - the vouchers had to be safer and more comfortable. This works with QR codes that make the voucher clearly assignable and easy to devalue. To enable this, the voucher with print-on QR code is scanned and devalued by the merchant during checkout – abuse is excluded. The vouchers can be purchased as usual at all Kehl’s retailer outlets, starting from January 2014.

The system behind it was developed by the IT company “it- werke”: "Of course there is a little more to it than just showing a printed QR Code at the checkout", says CEO Ulrich Kipper. "Various security features ensure that vouchers cannot be forged and, by utilizing a patented method for data transmission, safety is ensured even at times a smartphone is being lost." Because the mobile voucher is only turned into money by the background system, handling for traders becomes a lot easier. All they need to redeem a voucher is a smartphone or a tablet. From a customers’ perspective, the mobile voucher has other advantages, too. On request, it can be also be sent directly to the customers smartphone or digitally been given away to friends. In addition, new points of acceptance for mobile payment are automatically created due to the vouchers infrastructure. Having access to the entire infrastructure of mobile commerce solution "GO4Q", participating retailers can instantly provide additional services, just by using their smartphones. With over 60 collection points for the new mobile voucher, consequently over 60 new partners for mobile payment arise. In the end, both customers and retailers benefit equally: "Nowadays, more and more consumers use their smartphones for online purchases - so why not support this learned behavior and also use it for stationary shopping? With the new technology, this is now possible and online and offline-retail grow a good deal together", said Andreas Eidel, Member of the Executive Board of the City Forum Kehl. Based on this foundation, the dealer network can be further constructed, which also brings added value to the customer – crucial for the acceptance of new technologies.

No matter whether merchant or customer, all you need for mobile payment is a smartphone and the free app "GO4Q" (available for iOS + Android). Once registered for the service, you can pay with any desired method of payment (credit/debit card, PayPal) and the new vouchers can be ordered. Anyone interested in the many other ways of GO4Q or who wants to know which points of acceptance there are in Kehl, finds lots of useful information at www.go4q.mobi or on www.city-forum-kehl.de.

Background:
GO4Q allows customers to do mobile shopping, ordering and payment with their smartphone. GO4Q can be used by retail, service and hospitality. The registration is free. GO4Q mobile shopping / mobile payment / mobile couponing / mobile ticketing / mobile billing is a service of it-werke Service GmbH

Further Informations
Marcus Ernst
Sales & Marketing
it-werke Service GmbH
Galgenbergweg 4, 77933 Lahr
fon +49 7821 9206 70-12
mail marcus.ernst@it-werke.de

This release was published on openPR.