BERLIN, July 19 (Xinhua) -- German payment services provider Wirecard will be cooperating with the discount supermarket chain Aldi on cashless payments, the Munich-based digital payment provider announced on Friday.
In the retail sector, "optimal payment processes" would play a key role, said Christian Reindl, executive vice president consumer goods at Wirecard. "We are therefore very pleased to be working with Aldi and developing our partnership further in the future."
In the cooperation with Aldi, Wirecard would handle all payments with credit cards and international debit cards in the German branches of the Aldi Group, according to the German payment provider.
"We want to offer our customers the easiest and fastest service at all times, even in the payment process" said Sebastian Jockel, deputy head of financial management at ALDI Nord.
Contactless payment was already "possible in all branches of ALDI Nord," an Aldi spokesperson told Xinhua, including Girocards with Near Field Communication (NFC).
However, Girocard cards which are commonly used in Germany were not included in the cooperation between the payment provider and the German discount store.
According to Wirecard, the German payment provider has so far connected almost 280,000 customers globally, predominantly small retailers.
For providing its digital payment processes, Wirecard is charging a fee on transactions processed which, according to Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Markus Braun, averaged between 1.4 and 1.7 percent.
On Thursday, Wirecard announced that it would be providing its payment and banking platform to Auto1, the German used car online marketplace which has about 1 million customers globally.
