NEAR field communications (NFC) technology has brought a new wave of techniques to the retail industry, enabling bricks and mortar stores to attract and interact with customers in innovative ways.
Analysts see these tools as a money maker as well, with a study conducted exclusively for Computer Weekly by Juniper Research showing contactless mobile payment revenues set to soar to $F320.3bn by 2017, with western Europe and the US catching up with the current adoption levels in east Asia.
The retailer, which sells clothing, food and home products, among other merchandise, has added contactless to its 25 busiest stores in London, according to reports.
Marks & Spencer has 700 stores in the UK and would be one of the first tier-one merchants to roll out the technology.
There are more than 100,000 contactless point-of-sale terminals in the UK, but most are with small merchants, largely paid for by such contactless backers as Barclays bank and its Barclaycard unit, which is a large UK issuer and acquirer.
More large UK merchants are beginning to adopt the technology. Such tier-one merchants as McDonald's has rolled it out.
And the UK Post Office said in May it would begin equipping 11,500 branches and 30,000 terminals to accept contactless nationwide.