Tap to Phone: a paradigm shift in POS payments

Secure chip-based payment acceptance was once confined to the domain of retail Point of Sale (POS) devices. Not anymore. SoftPOS opens new opportunities for merchants, business owners and various professionals to lower their business costs, and get ahead of the competition.

Felix SoftPOS technology unlocks payment processing on consumer mobile devices, providing a software-based payment processing technology to enable ‘tap to phone’ card payments on mobile, without external hardware.

Our SoftPOS solution offers all the convenience and security of Tap and Go, but instead of receiving payments to a POS terminal, with Felix, the card is accepted directly on the merchant’s smartphone or tablet. The customer’s card is held against the back of the NFC-enabled smart device to process a payment. Felix accepts all major contactless payment methods, including Visa, Mastercard, Discover, AMEX, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay, and Google Pay.

Downloadable and software-driven, Felix Tap to Phone technology represents a paradigm shift in the distribution model for merchant payments. Now consumer-level smartphones can be transformed into payment processing terminals in minutes.

In this article, we explore 4 key use cases to help elucidate the value proposition and market opportunity for Felix’ payment technology.

1) SoftPOS solution for casual users and small business

One of the largest objections many small businesses have to payment terminals is their prohibitive costs. Taking cash payments is often far easier than using hardware. Whether it’s tradespeople performing odd jobs, babysitters, charity agencies or Uni students with ‘side hustles, all businesses need to be included in the financial system if it is to function effectively. But as cash gets phased out across the world, there is a risk that small businesses will be forced to license payment terminals they cannot afford.

By eliminating the cost of hardware and leveraging the billions of smartphones already in circulation, Felix provides a digital solution for card acceptance, at a significantly lower price point. It takes minutes to register and it costs nothing to have Felix SoftPOS installed on your phone, ready for use at any time. Now merchants and service providers of all shapes and sizes can take payments, simply by downloading an application.

2) Tap to Phone in retail customer service

Until now chip-card payments have required standalone hardware terminals at the point of sale, occupying extra space and undermining the retail customer service experience. The use of NFC-enabled mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets, to serve customers at the point of sale, enables businesses to retire legacy hardware, lower costs and achieve better integration of POS systems, processes, and data.

With Felix, it’s now possible for product vendors and retailers to integrate card-present payment acceptance on native applications used across retail stores, bars, and restaurants. This presents huge opportunities for synergies in restaurant table management, pay-at-the-table and self-service apps, line busting, retail roaming sales and more. We’re unlocking the smartphone application ecosystem to software-based payments, helping lower costs, improve distribution and create unique customer experiences on mobile.

3) The next generation in mPOS technology

Phone companies spend billions every year developing highly compact, high-performing handsets to make our lives easier. Substituting a heavy payment terminal for an elegant smartphone is a no brainer for any business that is looking to conserve space, improve aesthetics and remove hardware. After all, most businesses already take calls, take photos, send emails and book appointments on mobile – why not take payments?

Felix is a truly digital mobile Point of Sale (mPOS) payment terminal solution solution, which requires no external dongles or hardware. It’s a long-awaited opportunity for all the hardware-haters to kiss their terminals and clunky mPOS products goodbye once and for all, saving money and space in the process.

4) Turbocharging mobile sales teams

The traditional model for card payments is not able to be scaled without a huge financial cost. Getting a new terminal means more contracts, deliveries, delays, and costs. This greatly inhibits the reach and potential of Point of Sale card payment acceptance.

Felix flips the model for POS payments on its head, leveraging the ubiquity of existing handsets and delivering an ‘over the air’ distribution model via the web. Unlimited users can download Felix onto their smartphones and take payments anywhere in no time at all. To add a new user or employee – simply download Felix on another device and log in. It’s that simple.

This means mobile sellers and service providers can expand their payment acceptance capabilities infinitely, anywhere, in an instant, without cost constraint.

Get in touch

Interested in capitalizing on Felix’ Tap to Phone SoftPOS technology? Don’t hesitate to get in touch.

Felix offers unlimited potential for businesses to capitalize on mobile technologies. Whether you’re a small business, large retailer, software vendor or Fintech service provider – we’d love to hear from you.