Alcatel-Lucent Announces Contactless Payment and Loyalty Pilot for Sanoma Magazines

Alcatel-Lucent has begun a trial with Sanoma Magazines, in which buyers of the magazines HUMO and Flair can use contactless payments and loyalty points.

For the publisher, which is based in Belgium, the program is intended to gain insight into the purchasing habits of customers without subscriptions. This magazine trial is being executed in conjunction with Proximity BBDO, a customer relationship agency. Alcatel-Lucent has supplied the technology behind the trial for the payment vouchers, loyalty points, and contactless payment.

HUMO readers can purchase a prepaid near field communication (NFC) sticker for their mobile phones for 24 euros. The sticker will give them access to 12 instead of 10 magazine titles. The customer holds the sticker in front of a contactless reader at the point of sales when purchasing the magazine.

Readers of Flair magazine, another publication by Sanoma, who ask for a sticker when buying their magazines and who register online earn loyalty points with each purchase of the magazine and will receive a gift after four purchases. These customers will receive an SMS-update if they have yet to purchase Flair that week. The sticker can also be activated for contactless payment, allowing users to buy other items at the selected shops.

This trial will run with seven stores in and around Antwerp, Belgium. These stores will contain contactless reading devices for the stickers. About 700 readers of Flair and HUMO will be part of the trial project.

“This project is a nice example of the possibilities offered by the e-wallet,” says Anthony Belpaire, general manager of Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile wallet service, in a statement. “In the future ever more payments will be done electronically and will be completely integrated with loyalty programs.”