SAN JOSE: IT Retail and Citcon announced a partnership to bring mobile wallet payments to the grocery industry.

Citcon is a leading mobile wallet payment provider globally. The technology company offers a variety of wallet brands including PayPal, Venmo, AliPay, WeChat Pay and more. It is the only fully licensed U.S.-based acquirer of all 3 Chinese payment brands: Alipay, WeChat Pay and China UnionPay. Citcon is a total omnichannel commerce payment provider with technology integration and service teams based in North America, Europe and China.

This new partnership with IT Retail gives grocery stores using IT Retail POS an immediate opportunity to start accepting payments from mobile wallets in stores. Mobile wallets are highly secure due to the use of dynamic QR codes and safe due to their contactless nature.

They are highly used by millennials and Asian customers, so they will enable faster transition to cashless operating environments in stores.

“This partnership will dramatically increase penetration of PayPal, Venmo and other wallets in North American grocery stores,” said Wei Jiang, President of Citcon.

“Following our similar partnership announcements in travel, hospitality and retail, it grows the footprint of merchants who will be able to accept mobile wallets and sets the stage for a rapid expansion of contactless, QR-based mobile wallet usage by consumers in the US.”

“This partnership will increase grocer profitability while allowing more opportunities to satisfy customers during a time when contactless payments are very desirable,” said George Goodwin, 4th-generation grocer and marketing head at IT Retail.

“Our strong partnership will keep profitability up while maintaining an excellent customer experience in and outside the store.”

Founded in 2015, Citcon enables billions of mobile wallet consumers to shop and pay anywhere, anytime around the world with its industry-leading digital payment offering. In the last 3 years, Fortune 1000 businesses like L’oreal, Hermes, Texas Instruments, Nordstrom, Caesars Entertainment, MGM Resorts, Revolve, Tumi, Samsonite, Blue Nile and many more have chosen Citcon’s mobile payment solutions to expand their payment and commerce infrastructure to support their next phase of business expansion. Citcon is headquartered in Silicon Valley and has 5 regional offices in the US, Canada, Europe, and Asia.

IT Retail was founded in 1993 by third generation retailer Martin Goodwin. After unsuccessfully searching for a Windows-based POS system, Martin worked with Microsoft to build his own and in doing so became the first company to put a PC in a checkstand. 26 years later, IT Retail is in seven countries and has over 7,000 licenses in grocery stores ranging from 1 lane checkouts to large chains. www.citcon.com