Greggs the bakers is going contactless/wave and pay at its 1,500 shops. The Co-op’s supermarket chain is introducing the system at all stores within the M25, while Wilkinson, Subway and Superdrug are introducing new tills. They join early-adopter firms such as Boots, Eat and Pret A Manger, and the company that is driving its takeup at the moment – McDonald’s.
via This year the contactless ‘wave and pay’ revolution finally begins | Money | The Guardian.
I’m off to Cape Town next week to meet some of the key players behind the growth of Prepaid in the region.
In South Africa we haven’t got to the point yet where local celebrities are clamouring to get their names branded on prepaid cards, but it is a market that is showing so much growth potential that the widest represented prepaid industry organisation in the world, Global Prepaid Exchange, established an office in Cape Town late last year.
It also represents a big enough market opportunity for the big banks in South Africa to sit up and take notice, expanding their prepaid offering to get a slice of the cake. According to Global Prepaid Exchange, the market is worth R29.4bn annually – almost half the current market capitalisation of Nedbank, South Africa’s fourth largest bank. The term “market opportunity” is used to describe the estimated maximum potential annual load value that could be achieved in the market on prepaid products given current market conditions.
via Banks chase R29bn prepaid-card market in SA – Financial | Moneyweb.
Just what combination of technology convergence, business partnerships and consumer acceptance points will finally drive the widespread adoption of global mobile payments is at the centre of the agenda at the CARTES in North America expo & conference, 5-7 March 2012 in Las Vegas, Nevada.
We, Global Prepaid Exchange, will be there, with our thoughts on the answer.
See >>> Mobile Payments Going Mainstream at CARTES in North America – MarketWatch
Here is a corking supply and demand story.
They have been called the ghost estates of the Irish Republic – about 300,000 homes built in the frenzy of the property boom that no-one wants to live in now.
via BBC News – Unwanted homes in Irish Republic could be demolished.
How do you price one house on an estate when all all the others are unsold? Zero? Well probably not, but it does represent a challenge.
And 300,000 empty houses in a country with a population of 4 million is a shocking ratio.
I was chatting with a friend over Christmas. She is the finance director for a UK fashion distribution business that deals with some cool brands. Apparently an average of 105 debtor days is the norm for them. So they may get their Christmas revenues in about Easter time then.
Today I saw an interesting article in The Daily Telegraph about how the behaviour of a few celebrities or a Royal can change fortunes. Look at this for an example:
Hunter, which lost £300,000 on sales of £4.3 million in 2006, made a £16 million profit on sales of £56 million in 2010.
You can read more about this here:
via Will Kate kick off a war of the wellies? – Telegraph.
And so £300 a pair for boots seems to be the new going rate! Excellent.
"A key question is whether Google is using its market power to steer users to its own web products or secondary services and discriminating against other websites with which it competes," Senators Herb Kohl and Mike Lee wrote.
via BBC News – Google search home page revamp promotes other services.
I do hope so! They are a business after all.