MasterCard Shows Off Its Vision of the Future of Mobile Commerce

MasterCard offered up a number of new additions intended to upgrade the shopping experience for consumers using MasterCard digital payments products at its Innovation Showcase yesterday in New York City.

After PayPal last week added new shopping features to its digital wallet, MasterCard added a new service called ShopThis! to its MasterPass wallet. The service, which MasterCard is offering with Intel and PhiSix Fashion Labs, offers online shoppers looking for fashion and clothing items a fully interactive 3D virtual fitting room through Intel’s Virtual Shopping Experience, MasterCard said in a statement.

[See Related: PayPal’s New App Adds New Payment Options and Shopping Features]

MasterCard also showed off its QkR payments application. The company is expanding the app to include improved shopping experiences at sports stadium and other venues, as well as for students at school.

At sports stadiums, the app will allow fans to order food from a stadium vendor and pay for it with their mobile device without leaving their seat. This capability is now in beta Testing with Legends Hospitality, MasterCard said.

And parents will be able to pre-order and pay for school lunches for their children through the app.

MasterCard also demonstrated how the QkR app can work with wearable devices at the showcase.

And the company also showed off Simplify Commerce, a service to help merchants quickly and easily accept electronic and mobile payments. The open source product offers API’s and SDK’s for developers and merchants to create new e-commerce and mobile payments applications, with the aim of spurring innovation around acceptance of new payments technologies, MasterCard said.

[To learn more about new opportunities in mobility in financial services, check out the agenda for the New Opportunities for Mobility: A Financial CIO/CTO Roundtable session at the upcoming Interop event in NYC.]

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio