James Connelley, SEQR: "The main element and always our main focus is ease of use"

Could you introduce SEQR to our readers? What is the service you provide and how did this start?

SEQR is a mobile app that represents the next generation of mobile payment and money transfer solutions by allowing users to pay via their mobile device using the latest technology. It is exceptionally easy to use, offering a simple, fast alternative to making everyday payments that we believe will rapidly be establishing itself as the new standard way to pay in Europe and globally in the next few years.

It started as a natural extension from our top-up platform for mobile phone users, where the company offered a leading service. By extending our technology through development of mobile payments, we became among the first to offer an easy to use true payment service via the mobile phone. Users only needed to scan a QR-code and then punch in their code and the payment was completed.

With the most recent feature addition, we now are among the first in the world to add a contactless payment solution in the mobile phone. This means that literally overnight there are upwards of 30 million contactless payment terminals globally where you can pay with SEQR, whether or not they have accepted SEQR before.

On the merchant side, SEQR has been very popular, as they are often charged just a fraction of the usual fee comparing with the card fees, while offering their customers a fast, simple payment option at point of sale including the option of automatic registration of purchases to their loyalty program.

This year you have received the Florin Award for Best Customer Centric Excellence. What, would you say, are the main elements that make SEQR stand out from other services like it?

The main element and always our main focus is ease of use. In terms of the features, it is a very unique offering. Contactless payments are very common in some countries via a physical card but only a few players offer this service via a consumer’s mobile device. Though the possibilities open up dramatically when the services are combined together, with remittance services already in place in some countries with more being added and instant Peer to Peer payments both domestic and internationally between users being added in the Autumn of 2016. This will allow our users to freely send money in real time between friends, family or any other user, globally, which is a very exciting and unique proposition, especially as many countries are used to P2P transfer times spanning many days.

In the mobile payment market one of the biggest challenges is convincing both merchants and customers of the value and effectivity of your service, something that many initiatives in the past have failed to do. How does SEQR tackle these problems?

That is correct. We try to add value to both parties, ease of use for consumers, combined with a back-up feature in case of card failure or loss; and a substantial lowering of the transaction costs for the merchant. Still it has been a challenge, even though growth has been picking up in the last year. As we are among first in the world to offer contactless payments this dramatically increases the potential for scalability. The technology is no longer dependent on merchant integrations and now works anywhere that contactless (NFC) terminals are in place. With over 30 million NFC terminals currently active globally, the value to users increases dramatically and our integrated merchants will benefit from our increased user base and the increased frequency of use.

You have rapidly expanded internationally in the past few years, adding the US, UK, Spain, Italy, France, and the Netherlands in 2015. What are your three biggest markets, in terms of payments processed, and how much payments do you facilitate in those countries?

Our biggest markets are Sweden, Belgium and Portugal where we process 10s of millions of Euros worth of transactions. One of the key benefits of SEQR for our users is that they can use SEQR not just domestically, but internationally, for both payments and money transfer, so the adding of new markets for SEQR is important to support that benefit. With the launch of our contactless Tap & Pay solution, users will be able to spend in millions of locations worldwide.

What do you think are the most important changes necessary for global mobile payment acceptance? In other words, what does the future of mobile payments look like?

We are in the middle of a shift of paradigm and it is a natural tech evolution, much like when cheques were superseded by cards, or when physical media for music moved to the purely digital medium that people take for granted today. The same transition is now happening for physical credit and debit cards as they follow the same natural evolution towards integration and digitisation. In many countries NFC, contactless cards are commonplace, but this is just a stepping-stone in user adoption moving towards the natural inclusion of this everyday activity into the users’ mobile devices. We have seen this occur in every area of life in recent years, with the obsolescence of standalone music players and GPS Devices as examples. SEQR’s technology, its global footprint and its agile, consumer-focused approach to development, allows it be extremely nimble and reactive to user needs and changing trends, something that other players have much more difficulty to do. We see this as a distinct advantage that positions SEQR to lead this technological and behavioural shift.

About James Connelley

James Connelley joined the Seamless’s management team in October of 2014 as Global Sales Director. Previously he held the position of UK General Manager at Affinion and was also part of their Global Management team. Prior to this he has held a number of senior commercial and business development roles at Santander in the UK and General Electric in the UK and the US. At Seamless James is responsible for growing the SEQR business globally, developing the SEQR Sales team and forging new partnerships in both new and existing markets.

About Seamless

Seamless is a provider of mobile phone payment systems and handle more than 3.9 billion transactions each year via 600,000 active sales outlets. Combined with more than fifteen years experience and a presence in about 30 countries, this gives Seamless a strong position in the mobile phone payment market. It is the companys unique transaction platform that makes SEQR possible. Seamless is traded on Nasdaq Stockholm, under the SEAM ticker.

About SEQR

SEQR, developed by Seamless, is the fastest and easiest mobile payments solution currently available on the market. All customers need to do is use the SEQR app to scan a QR code or tap on the NFC terminal at the POS and approve the payment by entering their PIN. SEQR works just as well for physical transactions as for ecommerce, and is both faster and more secure than card payments. The technology behind the solution means that there is no investment cost for retailers. All that is required is a QR code / NFC sticker at the POS terminal. In addition, the low transaction charges allow the retailer to save money.