ACS Discusses NFC for Connected Commerce in Cartes 2014

KOWLOON BAY, Hong Kong - Dec. 12, 2014 - PRLog -- Advanced Card Systems Ltd. (ACS, a wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Card Systems Holdings Ltd., SEHK: 8210), Asia Pacific's top supplier and one of the world's top 3 suppliers of PC-linked smart card readers (Source: Frost & Sullivan), was a speaker in Cartes 2014, held in Paris, France, from Nov 4 to 6. Ms. Zoe Ko, ACS Manager for Sales and Marketing Communications, conducted a presentation entitled, “Advocating NFC Towards Connected Commerce.”

In the presentation, Zoe highlighted an important distinction between traditional and connected commerce: more than ever, the latter enables shopping to be an instant activity. With traditional commerce, consumers would have to clip out coupons (or print out electronic ones to present during payment), make trips to stores, try out goods, and line up at counters to pay. Meanwhile, connected commerce enables customers to complete the entire shopping process without taking out a physical wallet or going to a brick-and-mortar establishment.

It must be noted that with the advent of NFC, connected commerce is no longer confined to accessing websites to participate in transactions. Consumers, for example, can use a mobile device to snap a promotional coupon on the street, log onto a mobile commerce site, receive information from a business, and even review past purchases. As long as a customer has an NFC device, anywhere can be a touchpoint for interaction with a business. Businesses can become truly connected to a consumer’s daily routine in a non-intrusive way.

An example cited in the presentation is e-PLUS TaptoPay, an NFC-powered, end-to-end loyalty and payment solution for the largest mall operator in the Philippines. Through a contactless card or NFC phone, the e-PLUS system enables consumers to make electronic payments, avail of discounts and other perks, and benefit from smart queuing in retail establishments. Solutions like e-PLUS are expected to gain wider traction in the next few years. Growth drivers include growing shipments of NFC-enabled phones, and safer, more flexible storage of NFC secure elements.

ACS has long encouraged companies to leverage on the potential of NFC to improve services and maximize benefits for different stakeholders. For more information on NFC or NFC products, visit www.acs.com.hk or email info@acs.com.hk.

About ACS

Advanced Card Systems Ltd. (ACS, wholly owned subsidiary of Advanced Card Systems Holdings Ltd., SEHK: 8210), founded in 1995, is Asia Pacific's top supplier and one of the world's top 3 suppliers of PC-linked smart card readers. ACS is the winner of the Product Quality Leadership Award for Smart Card Readers from Frost & Sullivan. In 2010 and 2014, ACS was listed in Forbes Asia's “Best Under a Billion" list, an inter-industry list comprised of 200 top-performing publicly listed companies in the Asia-Pacific, with sales between US$5 million and US$1 billion. ACS develops a wide range of high quality smart card reading/writing devices, smart cards and related products and distributes them to over 100 countries worldwide. Visit ACS at http://www.acs.com.hk/