Originally Posted by
PKCorey
Signs say contactless coming soon but it was already activated at the pump. I don't normally go to Exxon though (not many locations here). I've never seen the GPay QR code before though. I just read about it. It seems pointless, if the pump has NFC enabled though unless I am misunderstanding.
As a way of claiming that you support various mobile wallets at the pump with less work/money involved, it's probably not useless. After all, ExxonMobil doesn't seem interested in outdoor contactless in general; even the Mobil location by my house for instance (which became one last year while they were replacing all of their pumps) didn't bother installing the readers.
I did check out the GPay app, though, and it seems to be mostly Shell locations listed under the "pay for gas at the pump" bit. ExxonMobil support may still be rolling out.
Originally Posted by
PrendellHiggins
No, you're right, it is pointless, as is the iOS App Clip. I don't understand the use cases for these fuel apps for companies that have NFC already rolled out (Sunoco, BP, Chevron). But Exxon and 7-Eleven have the worst contactless support of any of the gas station brands, so it's nice to see that they're working on installing the readers.
On that note, as much as we say that we don't want to have to use separate apps for each retailer, supposedly
the majority of Americans are fine with it:
I remember a Comscore survey that found that 55% of American consumers would be happy to have four or more retailer apps on their phone. For the retailers that they visit frequently (e.g., Starbucks SBUX) they will have the retailer app and use it. In other cases they will just use some third-party payment app (e.g., their bank) or a convenient wearable like a bracelet or key fob that is controlled by a third-party app. This will give retailers new opportunities to add value and new control over identity and payments.
(bold mine, which seems to be the ultimate goal of retailer specific apps.)
Originally Posted by
rasheed
I think the Exxon pictures also represent a similar pump to what I see in my local Vons/Safeway/Albertsons. At first the thought was awaiting the deployment of the new hardware to all stations first, that might be still true. Now, my thinking is the software that links into their Toshiba POS is not ready which likely makes the comparison to other chains difficult.
Which is ironic since they were the first to outdoor EMV. But I guess having to support up to six kernels (vs. one for contact EMV) is inevitably going to be more complex.