Best practices mentioned in the white paper include: providing basic information on benefits and on how and where to use the cards; targeting cardholders by demographics; creating “buzz;” identifying champions for contactless benefits; creating incentives; and using multiple communication vehicles to deliver key messages.

The white paper, “Issuer and Merchant Best Practices: Promoting Contactless Payments Usage and Acceptance,” is available for download here.

“Over the past five years, contactless payment has had the fastest deployment and acceptance of any emerging payments technology in recent memory,” said Randy Vanderhoof, the alliance’s executive director. “Though acceptance continues to rise, we need to look at the next steps in advancing the technology. The goal of this white paper is to outline the best practices necessary for the industry to move past the early adoption phase and prepare the payment infrastructure for the next innovation in proximity payments – NFC-enabled mobile phones.”

The white paper also includes best practices for other industry stakeholders, such as acquirers, processors, vendors, payment brands, and industry associations, all who “need to be engaged and coordinated to play a role in making contactless payments a success,” added Vanderhoof.

Some of the participants involved in the development of the white paper and in the issuer survey included Discover Financial Services, First Data Corporation, Giesecke & Devrient, IBM, INSIDE Contactless, MasterCard, Oberthur Technologies and VeriFone.