NEXPERTS, e24, the University of Applied Science from Northwest Switzerland and other industrial partners are launching a pilot project this month in Zurich that will enable customers to use their NFC phones to purchase goods and services at farmer shops.

The project, called “Touch’n Pay,” is intended to ease the shopping process in farmer shops, which are typically small, independent stores lacking a point of sale terminal infrastructure. The 80 customers participating in the pilot will be able to get information on a particular item by simply touching the price tag with their phones. A shopping basket application on the phone then sums up all articles and by a tapping the “checkout” tag, the electronic payment process will be initiated.