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NFC-enabled phones are expected to allow consumers to make payments, store and present loyalty cards and redeem offers at participating merchants with the tap of their phones

However, the industry has been slow to implement the technology as different groups – particularly credit card companies and cell phone service providers – have maneuvered for control of systems in deployment and lobbied for support and critical mass.

"NFC is the future of mobile payments and will ensure that transactions are done securely from mobile devices,"

Peter Ayliffe said: “The way we pay is changing, driven by the rapid uptake of new technologies and growing consumer demand for more flexible payments

We are already seeing early adoption of mobile payments, and in the coming months we will see the arrival of mainstream NFC technologies, advanced loyalty and e-commerce services, and ultimately, the launch of a new digital wallet.”

Support for other mobile Operating Systems, multiple currencies and payments to and within non-European countries will be added over following months.

Visa Alerts notify registered Visa cardholders on a real-time basis whenever their card has been used to make a purchase or to withdraw cash through Visa Europe’s payment network.

developed by Visa Europe in partnership with Monitise, the first of many services that will be made available through the partnership announced in early 2011.

Visa Mobile Person-to-Person payments allow registered users to transfer funds to any Visa cardholder in Europe from their mobile phone, backed by all the security and expertise of Visa Europe’s industry-leading processing systems. The app makes it easy to send money to an address book contact, to a mobile phone number, or to a specific Visa card number – whether or not the recipient is registered with the service.

Monitise plc (LSE: MONI.L) is a technology company delivering mobile banking, payments and commerce networks worldwide with the proven technology and expertise to enable financial institutions and other service providers to offer a wide range of services to their customers in developed and emerging markets.

A tag is a mechanism from which information can be wirelessly shared; in the same way a QR code can be read by a scanner (NFC reader). 

In some stores there will be a combination of tags and tag readers – the Smartphone will contain a tag/reader combination, as it is capable of sharing information, so that a store can retrieve your name, contact information and so on (with your permission) and likewise you can read information from a tag

At the backend of the NFC application, there may be several other applications supported by a web-portal or, in fact, a link through to a social media platform – ‘Likes’ a ‘retweet’; ‘+1’ and so on.  Of course, adoption will be slow at first and there will also be the early adopters which, in turn, will fuel the greater purchasing community. 

The brand tie-ins are potentially large.

With social media alone, brands can (and should) develop a dialogue with their consumers, which could well be further compounded by NFC supporting an ecosystem where consumers can begin to resurrect that loyalty spirit. 

NFC has the potential of creating a lively and dynamic market community sharing experiences and purchases with the wider community all enjoyed through social media.

Businesses have successfully applied gamification principles to achieving goals like reducing travel expenses (Google) and improving cashier checkout performance (Target). The Google example is interesting because it "actually got people talking about how to save money on travel," whereas the more traditional corporate water cooler conversation would be about how to cheat the system, Zimmerman said.

"Gamification by Design" largely focuses on the psychology of engagement and ways it can be applied to business applications.

Gamifying an application doesn't necessarily mean adding fancy graphics and sound effects, but often it does mean keeping score and letting "players" see how they rank on a leader board--the equivalent of the high scores screen on a video game. In a business context, that might mean letting salespeople see how they rank and how close they are to achieving a goal or securing a bonus as a way of getting the competitive juices flowing.

On the other hand, in a traditional loyalty program you might award one point for every dollar a user spends. In a gamified system, you might want to instead provide variable, unpredictable reinforcement where participants can hit the jackpot. This is the design principle that keeps slot machine players glued to their chairs, even though they ought to know the house always wins.