Anywhere Commerce’s Gateway Course Includes Adding NFC-Payment Capabilities

Mobile point-of-sale company AnywhereCommerce will add near-field communications (NFC) payment capability to its mobile hardware in coming weeks, signaling a further shift along its path to becoming a cloud-based payments gateway. That’s the word from William Nichols, Anywhere Commerce’s chief executive.

That strategy, implemented about six months ago when Nichols arrived from Verifone Inc. to step in for Mitch Cobrin, who had been the Montreal-based company’s top executive for more than four years, is coming to fruition. Cobrin, Anywhere Commerce’s founder, continues as chief catalyst with the company, working on business development and strategic partners.

Nichols says certification of AnywhereCommerce’s gateway for magnetic-stripe transactions by processors is complete, with EMV-transaction certification under way. With a focus on the Americas, that EMV certification is crucial, as the United States and other markets migrate to the chip card payment standard.

For AnywhereCommerce, having an EMV-capable gateway and EMV-compatible POS hardware means a tripling of the average selling price for its mobile POS readers, Nichols says. “We go from a $15 average selling price to a $40 average selling price,” he says. That is compounded by growing sales, he adds.

AnywhereCommerce devices also will have NFC capability by mid-year, making it easier for merchants to accept contactless payments made with Apple Pay and other NFC-based payment services, Nichols says.

But it’s not just hardware and certifications that AnywhereCommerce is working on, he says. Anywhere Commerce already has a suite of services including POS apps, software development kits, and application programming interface technology to enable POS integration, and the ability to create customized services. Now, it is also is developing a Web site to enable merchants to view transaction-report data.

AnywhereCommerce also is expanding its independent sales organization reseller program. “We are looking at it to expand it and make it fit how ISOs want to sell,” Nichols says.