Barclays trials barcode scanning and payment app
Employees at Barclays' London office have started testing an app, known as Grab+Go, which allows them to pay for low-value items in the staff restaurant by scanning barcodes with their smartphones. Users create an account and pre-load their payment details before scanning a product's barcode and paying with a single click. Participating merchants have a digital record of all transactions and payments. The trial is set to be extended to the bank's offices in Northampton and Wilmington, Delaware ahead of a planned public roll-out, according to Barclays.
Employees at UK bank Barclays and Barclaycard’s London office have begun piloting a new payment concept that allows them to buy low-value goods in the staff restaurant by scanning the barcode on the items using their smartphone and completing the purchase “with a single click” without needing to visit the physical checkout.

“Users download the Grab+Go app, create an account and pre-load their payment details and then use their smartphone camera to scan the barcode on items as they go,” Barclaycard says. “When finished, they click ‘I’m done’ and walk out — payment is taken seamlessly and invisibly in the background and the receipt is stored in the app.

“As well as saving shoppers time by removing the need to queue, Grab+Go offers merchants a brand new, additional way of serving their customers and to meet their demand for quicker, easier and more convenient ways of buying goods.”

“The merchant holds a tablet PC that shows, in real-time, the transactions being made by each Grab+Go user, the items they have scanned and confirms when payment has been made,” Barclaycard told NFC World.

Rollout plans

The concept will soon be extended for trials in Northampton, Teesside and Wilmington in the US “ahead of a planned public rollout”, Barclaycard adds.

“Using the latest technology, we’ve developed Grab+Go to streamline the shopping experience by removing the need to physically check out every time you want to buy something,” says Usman Sheikh, director of design and experimentation at Barclaycard.

“An important part of this trial will be getting feedback from colleagues as well as the operators in the staff restaurants to further develop the product and proposal. Once the final version is complete, it will be available to our clients to help revolutionise payments in their own businesses.”

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