The communication with the point of sale in order to fulfill the payment is "powered by POSCard", a development of leading POS and EFT specialists POSPartner, a strategic partner of Yapital. Thanks to Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), which creates a wireless connection between the smartphone and the point of sale, customers can make payments easily using their Yapital app even in places where there is no mobile network coverage - for example in shops located in basements or in some shopping centres. It is being demonstrated for the first time at the Euroshop trade fair in Düsseldorf from 16 - 20 February - and is about to be rolled out in retail stores.

BLE is set to become the new standard for near-field communication: the technology saves energy and, compared to NFC, enables data to be exchanged over a greater distance and in both directions. However, up to now, no payment provider in Europe has taken advantage of these benefits. Yapital is now starting along this road, employing this technology to enable its innovative cross-channel payment system to be used via smartphone in retail stores even without an Internet connection. Providing support for Yapital in its innovative use of this technology is POSPartner, a company that, like Yapital, has taken on a pioneering role when it comes to translating new technologies into customer benefits.

"With BLE technology soon to be integrated into our Yapital app, we are indisputable innovators in the payment market," says Nils Winkler, Chairman of the Board at Yapital. "Yapital is taking very seriously the claim of offering a true 'Everywhere Payment' system that works in all situations. This means that users will be able to pay just as easily and intuitively with Yapital when they are in a dead spot as they can with perfect network coverage," explains Winkler. "It was important for us that this should be easy to deploy for all our partners and that, for users, it operates in the same way as they are used to."

Peter Reeich, CEO of POSPartner, adds: "It is now rapidly becoming clear that BLE is the future of near-field communication - especially in the payment market. Here, this technology will soon make an important contribution to the growing acceptance of mobile payment methods." The course is now set for this and according to Reich: "In conjunction with Yapital, we are giving retailers the opportunity to offer their customers an improved shopping experience even without network coverage and at the same time to reduce waiting times at the checkout. We expect a very good response because the huge potential is matched by the ease of integration into the POS system with POSCard."