CaixaBank has signed up Calzedonia as one of the first major retailers to use its new integrated payment and business management platform for shops. The Italian hosiery and swimwear brand has deployed the system across more than 280 stores in Spain.
What the platform does
The platform was developed by Comercia Global Payments, the payments company jointly owned by CaixaBank and Global Payments. As well as processing card payments, it connects to a shop’s own management systems so that much of the work around payments is automated.
Its features include:
- Dynamic currency conversion, allowing foreign customers to pay in their own currency — useful in tourist areas such as the Balearics;
- secure storage of payment details for repeat purchases;
- an offline mode, so transactions can continue if the connection drops;
- digital receipts delivered by QR code;
- in-store tokenisation, which registers a customer’s card securely at the till, for example for loyalty schemes;
- central management of sales, authorisations, refunds and cancellations across all of a retailer’s shops.
CaixaBank says the system can be scaled from a small business with a handful of terminals to a chain with hundreds of stores. It runs on servers in several locations to keep working if one fails, uses end-to-end encryption and can be updated without interrupting payments.
The bank claims to be the only one in Spain offering a solution with these characteristics.
About Calzedonia
Calzedonia was founded in Verona, Italy, in 1986 by Sandro Veronesi, who now chairs the Oniverse group. The group also owns brands including Intimissimi and Tezenis, which are a familiar sight in Spanish shopping streets and centres. Calzedonia has more than 2,000 shops in 53 markets and sells online in 38 countries.
Why it matters
Card and mobile payments are now the norm in Spanish shops, and retailers increasingly want systems that link the till to stock, sales and customer data rather than simply taking payments. CaixaBank, which according to the bank has more than 30% of the Spanish card payments market, is betting that big chains will value having those functions in a single platform.
For shoppers, the most visible changes are likely to be paperless receipts and, for tourists, the option of paying in their home currency.
