Seamless’ SEQR Brings Mobile Payments With QR Ease to Spain
Quick Response (QR) codes are an interesting idea; take a picture of a QR code with a mobile device—smartphone or tablet will do—and get access to new content according to the image.
But Seamless, a mobile payment service, has put the idea to work to make mobile payments even easier. It’s already been rolled out in several places, most recently arriving in Spain.
Seamless had already brought out the service, known as SEQR, to several different markets, including the Netherlands and Germany just ahead of this, and beforehand, Sweden, Finland, Belgium, and Portugal.
Now, the Spanish market will get its hands on this new tool, and raise the total number of potential users to 45 million.
SEQR allows for rapid and easy sales of nearly anything, thanks to an interface that’s point-and-click simple, even in the real world. SEQR works by allowing users to scan a QR code that’s connected to any of several platforms—a television commercial, a digital banner or advertisement online, or even on the side of a product itself.
SEQR works with real-world materials, with online stores, and even with a shop portal known as the SEQR Shop Spot, which helps bring these tools to businesses faster and with less muss.
Just to sweeten the pot, SEQR offers up a refund in the form of up to three percent cash back on every purchase made through the system, which will prove a welcome development for users. Also, should there need to be cash transfers going back and forth between users, SEQR allows for such service to be staged without fees.
This is an extremely clever idea; allowing customers to pay for things with a smartphone by just taking pictures of an item in question, and then connecting said pictures to a mobile payment account should really perk up the speed on transactions.
Faster transactions mean that more can be done in the same amount of time, which is pretty much the textbook definition of efficiency. Done properly, such a system might well usher in an era where we no longer have cashiers at brick-and-mortar stores, just a few customer service reps and one person watching the door to make sure no one absconds with unpurchased material.
While it’s likely to be a while before we reach that point—this service is still mostly European in nature at last report—the idea of it is sound enough on the surface to make it well worth while.