CinemaxX is allowing movie-goers at theaters in Germany to use a mobile application to purchase tickets and refreshments with their smartphones, meeting consumers’ accelerated demands for fast, convenient service amid the mobile mind shift.

Starting in a few weeks, the Hamburg, Germany-based chain will offer payment through Yapital’s mobile application at 29 theaters, making it the nation’s first cinema operator to offer smartphone-based payments, it said. Consumers’ expectations in terms of speed and convenience have risen significantly owing to being able to get anything they want when they want it via the smartphone – the one device they have with them constantly.

“This is a great new partnership for Yapital,” said Martin Zander, head of PR and communications at Yapital, a Luxembourg-based provider of mobile payment systems to a range of businesses. “It lets us step into a completely new space.

“This is a natural evolution, to go to mobile payments in the cinema, because people use mobile phones for so many other things today,” he said.

Cashless system
Yapital’s cashless cross-channel payment system is used in Europe in stores, on mobile, in online operations and by involce, enabling marketing channels to be converted into sales channels while reducing costs.

Buying purchases for the cinema through the app works similarly across the fields the platform serves.

Seamless mobile payments.

First, the user loads the Yapital app on a phone. Then he points the phone at the QR code at a terminal at the ticket booth or service counter and scans it to confirm the purchase with a click.

Since movies attract millions of spectators to cinemas, the film industry has the potential to be a crucial player in establishing mobile payments.

Players diving into mobile ticketing in the past have included AMC Theatres, which rolled out a mobile ticketing application to let users buy movie tickets while on the go. AMC made the ticketing app its first main foray into mobile after seeing how quickly the mobile ticketing space is growing.

Movie ticket marketplace Fandango saw record-breaking ticket sales come from mobile devices recently, following the premiere of Universal Pictures’ film Fifty Shades of Grey.

Mobile developer AppSpark helped consumers skip lines at the box office with two mobile applications that let them buy mobile tickets right from their handsets.

Movies Now 2 and Movies Now HD gave consumers access to tickets at 11,000 theater screens in the United States through MovieTickets.com’s application programming interface. The applications also included content such as movie reviews, videos and a location-based theater finder.

Entertainment brands and film studios have been quick to move into mobile when it comes to driving buzz and ticket sales before a film premiers.

Mobile research
A recent study from the Interactive Advertising Bureau and InMobi found that 56 percent of moviegoers use their mobile devices to learn more about their entertainment options.

Mobile is accelerating demands for speed and convenience.

“It is a natural evolution for us to be in the cinema business,” Mr. Zander said. “Yapital can be valuable in purchases, whether online, offline or via invoice.”

Final Take
Michael Barris is staff reporter on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York