PARKING ‘a wireless handshake' with a user’s Smartphone, letting ParkingPerx know when you have entered and exited a car park. Smart Beacons are also placed in and around participating stores to verify ParkingPerx claims – upon completing a qualifying purchase, shoppers present their claim to the retailer via their Smartphone. ParkingPerx then collects these consumer-earned rewards from shops and pays them directly to car park owners/operators. Verified claims are available for shoppers to use against their parking fees on their next visit. When they use the app to pay for their parking at the end of their stay, they will have a 'My Perx balance' that they can use to reduce or even eliminate their fee. At the end of the day, it’s about getting shoppers to spend money in-store, and giving them that feeling of satisfaction from attaining free parking it is likely to help leave them gratified after a day of

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shopping. There are of course pitfalls to mobilecontrolled payment methods – most distressing perhaps that a person’s phone might simply run out of battery. These, however are of the sort that

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seems to plague any technology offer where sometimes a need for human intervention is needed – as the disgruntled letter writer discovered. But on the whole, app technology is moving parking payment in the right direction.

MARCH 2017 SHOPPING CENTRE

01/03/2017 09:04:32