Mobile payment specialist Paythru’s partnership with Pensio will benefit retailers that want to generate revenue from the 73.4 million mobile payment users worldwide.
 
The Paythru-Pensio service provides simple and transparent creation and management of merchant accounts, as well as the processing of credit card payments on the Paythru mobile payments platform.
 
Paythru and Pensio have developed the system with merchants front of mind. Mobile Commerce Daily’s Chris Harnick interviewed Keith Brown, managing director of Paythru, Amersham, England.

Mr. Brown is confident that mobile commerce will shortly reach its tipping point with mass adoption being driven by the all-you-can-eat data packages available from all mobile service providers, 3G access and new handsets delivering browsing speeds close to that of fixed line access. 

Here is what Mr. Brown had to say:

What is the strategy behind the partnership?
Paythru offers an innovative mobile payments platform which allows organizations in the commercial, public and charitable sectors to create a mobile commerce channel and tap into the growing trend for consumer impulse purchases. 

One of the biggest challenges in setting up the mobile sales channel is the creation of merchant accounts that are required to handle card transactions. 

As a full-line supplier of payment solutions Pensio allows Paythru to offer simple and quick creation and integration of merchant accounts internationally. 

This means that our customers can generate revenues from mobile commerce in whichever countries they are operating.

What challenges does the partnership address for both companies?
From Paythru’s point of view the partnership increases the speed in which our clients can get to market with a mobile commerce offering. 

Pensio’s international offering means that we only need a single piece of development for all of a client’s merchant’s accounts. 

Pensio allows us to operate at the payment infrastructure level rather than individual account level.

What is the target demo for these services?
We expect that the Paythru-Pensio service will be attractive initially to retailers, gaming and sports companies, and charitable organizations. 

Although, the service will be valuable to any organization that wants to benefit from being able to offer customers impulse transactions. 

How will these services be marketed?
The service is being promoted through Pensio and Paythru’s business development channels.

We have also had a number of banks, including HSBC, promoting the service to their clients.

What retailers have already signed on for the platform?
We have only announced the Paythru-Pensio service this week and as yet we do not have any clients that have completed the necessary set-up but we expect to be able to announce clients in early January 2010.