Sephora accepts payment via employee device in U.S. stores
Sephora is rolling out a new contactless payment option in select U.S. locations.
The beauty giant, a subsidiary of global retail conglomerate LVMH, is deploying the J.P. Morgan Tap to Pay on iPhone solution in all freestanding U.S. locations. As a result, Sephora associates can now accept contactless payments using their iPhones, without the need for a dedicated payments card reader or additional hardware.
Customers can engage with an associate anywhere in a participating Sephora store and pay via employee device. Store employees can accept contactless credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, and other digital wallets anywhere in the store by using their iPhone and the mobile POS app. Sephora is the first J.P. Morgan Payments client to enable Tap to Pay on iPhone.
Once an associate selects Tap to Pay on iPhone, they have the customer tap their contactless card or mobile device to the employee’s iPhone, and then the payment is seamlessly completed.
“We’re excited to partner with J.P. Morgan Payments to deliver Tap to Pay on iPhone and continue to bring innovative payment solutions to the Sephora shopping journey,” said Stefan Jensen, VP, treasurer, at Sephora. “Sephora operates with a customer-first mindset, and our goal is to provide an elevated shopping experience in all of the ways that our beauty community chooses to shop with us. Tap to Pay on iPhone allows our beauty advisors to complete contactless transactions easily with only an iPhone—anywhere in the store. It’s a win-win: our customers get a transparent and secure transaction without waiting in a long queue, and our beauty advisors have more freedom to build meaningful connections with our shoppers.”
“Today’s announcement marks a critical moment in time for the evolution of our business,” said Takis Georgakopoulos, global head of payments, J.P. Morgan. “Enhancing the ability for consumers to pay with their preferred method of payment is part of our broader, customer-centric approach to simplify omnichannel payment acceptance for our merchant clients. As consumer payment needs continue to rapidly evolve, this is a significant demonstration of our ability to innovate at scale to support our merchant clients through this ongoing transformation.”
“Giving consumers the ability to simply tap-and-go is very exciting. This solution means our merchants don’t need to worry about certain pain-points like card reader Bluetooth connectivity, terminal power charging or manually entering card information,” said Max Neukirchen, global head of payments & commerce solutions, J.P. Morgan Payments. “This will bring a truly flexible checkout process which is great for merchants and customers alike.”
Sephora operates more than 600 stores across the Americas and also offers 600 Sephora at Kohl’s store-within-a-store locations nationwide, with 850 locations planned by the end of 2023.
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