Best Practices For Mobile Point of Sale

MasterCard recently introduced their global Mobile Point of Sale (MPOS) Program which outlines the best practices for mobile point of sale transactions. The guidelines should be of particular interest to small businesses that have traditionally been slow to enter the mobile POS arena, and to larger companies that felt there were security issues and other barriers to entry for mobile technology.

Mobile payment processing is not restricted to brick-and-mortar businesses, but is also compatible with sales transactions conducted door-to-door and by street vendors, allowing them to easily accept MasterCard payments via their mobile devices. In fact, MasterCard WorldWide selected the El Ñaqui gourmet food truck in Puerto Rico as the Caribbean region’s sole participant in its “Cashless Pioneers” international series. It was chosen because of its owner’s willingness to challenge the perception that street food is a cash-only business, company officials said.

Simply stated, with MPOS, the mobile device is used as a merchant point of sale terminal when consumers use their debit, credit and prepaid cards to pay for goods and services.

The company developed the best practices guidelines based on the rapid proliferation of mobile commerce. James Anderson, Group Head, Mobile, MasterCard Worldwide, noted, “With nearly 6 billion mobile subscriptions around the world, there is tremendous potential to grow merchant acceptance – it’s imperative that manufacturers, vendors and merchants maintain the highest standards to enable a seamless and secure purchasing experience.”

MasterCard estimates that of the 1.2 million mobile POS solutions shipped in 2011, approximately 75 percent went to merchants who had no previous experience accepting credit or debit cards.

As noted on the company’s website, the MasterCard MPOS Best Practices document outlines best practices regarding:

1. Securing MPOS Payment Applications

2. Securing Transaction Data Captured by an MPOS Card Reader Accessory

3. Securing Personal Account Numbers (PAN)

4. EMV Chip Transactions

5. Display of the MasterCard Acceptance Mark

6. Merchant Confirmation

7. Cardholder Verification Methods (CVM)

8. Receipts

To illustrate the rapid growth of mobile POS technology acceptance, MasterCard estimates that at the end 2011 approximately 1.2 million MPOS solutions were shipped to MasterCard merchants globally, and approximately 75 percent of those merchants had previously not accepted payment card transactions.

Providers of mobile POS solutions will be able to assess their products against the MasterCard MPOS best practices and apply to be listed on MasterCard’s website. Registration for the program is expected to open in summer 2012.

About MasterCard

MasterCard is a global payments and technology company, processing payments in more than 210 countries and territories. Visit www.mastercard.com.

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