MasterCard® PayPass™ Merchant Locator Pinpoints ‘Tap & Go™’ Opportunities

Convenient Service Helps Drive Usage for Merchants and Issuers

Ms. Consumer needs a quick snack, but she’s low on cash. She does, however, have a MasterCard® PayPass™ device in her pocket. All she needs now is the location of the closest quick-service restaurant (QSR) that accepts PayPass.

No problem. Jumping on the Web, she heads to www.mastercard.com/PayPass and clicks on the Where to Shop link. There, she uses the PayPass Merchant Locator to conduct a search in her desired area for the nearest QSR that suits her fancy.

Within seconds, she’s made her choice, and she can print out directions to the location or text them to a phone of her choosing. She’s pretty pleased with her issuer’s PayPass card and with the PayPass-enabled merchant that will soon take the edge off her hunger.

This type of scenario is happening more and more frequently since the PayPass Merchant Locator was introduced in 2005.

“The PayPass locator is a great value-added service that MasterCard Worldwide provides for PayPass merchants, issuers, and cardholders,” says Alex Antunovic, business owner, PayPass Merchant Locator. “This valuable tool, which issuers can link to or elect to integrate into their own websites, provides useful information in a convenient way for consumers, but more important, it drives PayPass transactions, which can mean added revenue for merchants and issuers alike.”

Participation in and use of the locator platform is free of charge for merchants and issuers, while co-branding and custom configuration can be provided with minimal development costs.

Putting PayPass on the Map

With the rollout of PayPass three years ago, MasterCard sought a consistent and reliable way to track merchant locations as they came online, and display them to consumers.

“A variety of options were considered, but the existing MasterCard ATM Location Services infrastructure offered the most elegant solution,” says David Weis, senior managing consultant, MasterCard Advisors Information Products. “The PayPass locator leverages the proven technology of MasterCard ATM Location Services, which is accessed by more than 2 million unique users each year.”

The PayPass locator underwent a complete renovation in 2007 to accommodate the global expansion of MasterCard PayPass.

“Prior to 2007, the locator was focused on the United States,” says Joe Busateri, business leader, Emerging and Internet Solutions, Global Technology and Operations. “However, with the global growth of PayPass acceptance, we retooled the locator, taking advantage of the tool’s inherent scalability, to include more countries.”

The locator currently allows consumers to search for PayPass merchants in a variety of merchant categories in Australia, Canada, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Additional countries will become available as PayPass continues its expansion.

Growing Interest

Consumers are certainly expanding their use of the locators. Antunovic notes, for example, that the Canadian locator, launched in September 2007, logged 914 visitors in January 2008 and conducted 1,700 searches. In August, those numbers had grown to 6,500 consumers and 15,000 searches.

“The success we’ve seen really speaks to the value of this tool for consumers, merchants, and issuers alike,” he says. “We encourage issuers to inform their cardholders about this service, and we encourage merchants to get their locations on board. It’s easy to participate, and everyone benefits.”

For More Information

To learn more about the PayPass Merchant Locator, please contact Alex Antunovic at alex_antunovic@mastercard.com, or your MasterCard relationship manager.

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