USA Technologies Launches ePort Connect™ Wireless Payment Service for Self Service Point-of-Sale
Company Targets Key Unattended POS Markets
Las Vegas, NV, Electronic Transactions Association Expo, April 19, 2007 -- USA Technologies (Nasdaq: USAT) today launched ePort Connect™ the payments industry's most comprehensive wireless payment service for the multi-billion dollar unattended point-of-sale (POS) market.
ePort Connect is being offered to the payment industry as a solution for wireless unattended POS in order to further extend the Company's market reach and to build upon USA Technologies' growing success with ePort® Connect in the $46 billion vending market. The Company recently announced the nationwide deployment of 6000 devices with MasterCard, Cadbury Schweppes and several Coca-Cola bottlers-- all of which are connected to the ePort Connect Service.
"We are taking the cashless services that we have finely tuned in our existing markets, and directing them into new unattended POS opportunities such as kiosks, parking, tolls, mass transit and others," said Stephen P. Herbert, President and COO, USA Technologies Inc.
USA Technologies unveiled the new ePort Connect™ services offering at the Electronic Transactions Association 2007 Annual Meeting and Expo in Las Vegas, one of the biggest international trade shows serving the transaction processing industry.
ePort Connect™ wirelessly enables self service terminals to accept cashless payments, handles all elements of the transaction processing, and allows customers to monitor and manage their terminals online. The unique ePort Connect package supports USA Technologies' ePort cashless transaction product line, including the Company's web-based terminal reporting system, USALive®. With ePort Connect self-service terminals can accept all major credit cards from magnetic stripe and contactless, to Near Field Communications which allows consumers to make purchases with their cellular phones.
The comprehensive ePort Connect service features below enable merchants to rapidly mobilize cashless, unattended POS locations in a turnkey manner:
- Merchant Services. Assignment of merchant accounts and activation for immediate credit card acceptance.
- Networking and Communication Services. ePort Connect includes wireless account set up and services. Customers can also choose to connect to the service via an Ethernet or standard phone line.
- Technical Support and Consumer Help Desk. Technicians are on call 24/7 to handle all technical inquiries. A toll free phone number is listed with each transaction line item that a consumer can call for assistance.
- Electronic Transfer of Funds. Each week funds from the credit and debit card transactions are electronically transferred into the merchant's account.
- Online Reporting and Remote Management. USALive network is designed to deliver mission-critical information to more effectively manage and monitor unattended locations in the field 24x7. Both cash and credit/debit card sales data can be viewed remotely over any date range, by machine, by account and by region. Merchants can remotely change pricing one terminal at a time or across banks of terminals. The service also helps to maximize sales by providing complete auditing, alerts to merchants of inventory running low and maintenance issues.
Summit Research estimates North American consumers spent more than $475 billion at self-checkout lanes, ticketing kiosks and other self-service POS locations in 2006. Expenditures at these types of self-service kiosks are expected to rise 33 percent in 2007. According to Market Industry Wire, the parking industry transacts $17 billion annually, and EDS estimates mass transit exceeds $50 billion in transactions a year.
Tollbooths are fast emerging as a POS self-service opportunity, and recently the Ohio Turnpike Commission announced it was installing USA Technologies ePort payment solution at highway exit tolls to accept MasterCard's PayPass contactless payment system. The US Center for Business Planning estimates there are 3,500 tollbooths in the US conducting four billion transactions annually. There are another 9,500 booths internationally.
"The card industry in particular is looking to open up these markets with cashless technology, just as it is opening up the vending industry with contactless cards utilizing ePort," said Mr. Herbert. "We are already actively working with a number of companies interested in utilizing and/or distributing ePort Connect in a number of these markets, and are pursuing business opportunities with others to address demand in these emerging markets.
To learn more, watch a video presentation about ePort Connect.
Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act:
With the exception of the historical information contained in this release, the matters described herein contain forward-looking statements that involve risk and uncertainties that may individually or mutually impact the matters herein described, including but not limited to product acceptance, the ability to continually obtained increased orders of its products, the ability to meet installation goals, economic, competitive, governmental impacts, whether its pending patents will be granted or defendable; validity of intellectual property and patents of USA, the ability of USA to license its patents, the ability of USA to commercialize its developmental products, technological and/or other factors, which could cause actual results or revenues to differ materially from those contemplated by these statements.
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