Mastercard has shed further light on its recent partnership with Verizon Business, which aims to spur 5G-based innovation within the payments industry.
The partnership plans to use real-time edge computing and IoT sensors to deliver innovations ranging from contactless shopping and autonomous checkout technology to cloud-based point-of-sale systems.
Joel Henckel, senior VP of US market acceptance at Mastercard, told PYMNTS that Verizon and Mastercard’s respective networks connect billions of consumers, businesses, banks and governments. “We’ve got the framework to connect these important ecosystems together,” he said.
Mastercard’s New York City Tech Hub will be the centre of the two companies’ joint development efforts, with 5G and edge computing testing taking up the bulk of the research.
Henckel noted that the greater data speeds and low-latency characteristics of 5G will increase the throughput of information to reimagine what the point of sale might be. Payments, he said, should not be thought of as simply a swipe of a card that sends a transaction from point A to point B.
Femo Odunuga, senior VP of digital future planning at Mastercard, added: “Commerce in-store will change based on the speed.”
5G, he said, can reduce the amount of time it takes to “turn around” a transaction by as much as 50% to 70%.
Odunuga also said that the enhanced connectivity of 5G offerings can help merchants and payment networks add in loyalty and other rewards offerings to their in-store interactions.
Looking to the future, Henckel told PYMNTS that the partnership between Mastercard and Verizon could allow them to co-invest in other entities that have plans to scale using 5G.
Henckel and Odunuga both said that more efficiency at the point of sale will have positive ripple effects for enterprises, as they need smaller physical footprints to run their operations and better manage inventory.
Want to find out more from executives and thought leaders in this space? Find out more about the Digital Twin World event, taking place on 8-9 September 2021, which will explore augmenting business outcomes in more depth and the industries that will benefit.
