MasterCard and Media-Saturn, the holding company of Media Markt and Saturn, are joining efforts in a move that will allow shoppers at Europe’s best known consumer electronics retail brands to use their preferred MasterCard payment solutions at its shops across Europe. These efforts will provide consumers with greater choice over the way they want to pay in Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Belgium, Greece and Italy. Other countries may be included at a later stage.
General acceptance of MasterCard cards is being extended to Media Markt and Saturn stores in various countries, starting with Germany and Austria. In addition, Media-Saturn will extend the possibility already existing in Italy to pay contactless to other countries, starting with Germany and Austria this autumn, hence allowing consumers to tap their contactless card or device at the till and save time at checkout.
In order to ensure a seamless shopping and payment experience across all channels, Media-Saturn will also allow shoppers to use MasterCard’s MasterPass wallet solution on its online platform in all 6 countries by the end of 2015. Already in place in Poland and Italy today, this will increase convenience and safety for consumers across Europe who will be able to check out with just a few clicks, instead of having to provide their 16-digit card number and shipping address at every purchase.
Given the scale and footprint of Media Markt and Saturn as the leading consumer electronics retailers in Europe, this new partnership will significantly drive acceptance and use of electronic payments to the detriment of less efficient payment methods, such as cash – whether it is in-store or online.
“Contactless and online payments will particularly benefit from this agreement. Europeans can already use contactless cards or NFC-enabled mobile payments in 40 countries across Europe and their enthusiasm for this safe and simple way to pay is increasing every day.” – commented Javier Perez, President MasterCard Europe. “MasterPass is also available in 24 countries around the globe and represents the most convenient, safe and only global wallet to pay online.” he added.
Showcasing just how fast this technology is being adopted by consumers, a contactless study conducted by PRIME Research between November 2013 and April 2014 confirmed that consumers enjoy the convenience of contactless payments and expect merchants to catch up with the technology. Furthermore, the world’s first retail focussed social listening study by MasterCard, unveiled yesterday (7 September) highlights consumers desire for retailers to adopt new payment technologies.
