Mobile payment on the rise

Mobile payment without additional hardware – directly on your smartphone or handheld: SoftPOS solutions are changing the payment landscape in brick-and-mortar retail. In this interview, Dr. Hermann Geupel and Jochen Pielage from Rubean AG explain what makes their technology special, why retailers should focus on SoftPOS right now – and what we can expect at EuroShop 2026.

Where do you currently see the greatest potential for innovation in brick-and-mortar payment transactions?

Jochen Pielage: In times of online retail, the brick-and-mortar retail sector strives to give customers the best possible customer experience. Excellent advice and direct checkout with customers are replacing checkout queues and waiting times. The motto is “The checkout comes to the customer”. SoftPOS technology enables payment on practically any device that is NFC-enabled and has a SoftPOS app installed. These are, for example, the sales staff's handhelds or scanners that customers use independently.

Why does the retail sector need your solution right now?

Jochen Pielage: SoftPOS can be activated on any device that employees use today for goods management, stocktaking and other processes. So now is the time to serve customers better, easier and faster. Queues at the checkouts are no longer appropriate and completely unnecessary.

How does your SoftPOS solution work technically – and why is a normal Android smartphone enough?

Hermann Geupel: Rubean's SoftPOS solution consists of an app that larger retail companies automatically load onto employees' company handhelds via a mobile device management system and connect to the mobile checkout app.

To allow consumers to pay by card, the mobile checkout simply calls up the Rubean app, which prompts them to hold their bank card up to the device and enter the card PIN if required. The app carries out the transaction securely and certified via the Rubean terminal server in the data center, which is connected to the retailer's bank.

A retailer's SoftPOS terminal, which reads thousands of bank cards and records card PINs, must be strongly protected against spying and manipulation. The cell phones and company handhelds used are multi-purpose devices. The app secures these devices in a certified manner against possible attacks.

For which retail scenarios is your solution particularly attractive – kiosk, pop-up, flagship store, wholesale?

Hermann Geupel: Our solution is particularly attractive if an extra POS card reader is considered too unwieldy or too expensive. Unlike hardware, software can be distributed at the touch of a button and licensed very flexibly.

Retail companies, for example, equip all sales staff with a SoftPOS app so that they can help with the checkout if necessary - for example, if the queues at the checkout become too long or the central checkout breaks down. Customers can also be conveniently served directly at the point of sale without having to be sent to the central checkout.

Self-service devices such as self-scanners or self-checkout touchscreens are also equipped with the SoftPOS app.

When retailers deliver goods to customers' homes, couriers or freight forwarders usually use a mobile device (MDE or smartphone) to handle the business process. Our solution turns this mobile device into a payment terminal at the same time.

What about security, data protection and certifications – especially for payments directly on the smartphone?

Jochen Pielage: Card organizations such as Mastercard, Visa and the German Banking Industry (girocard) have approved SoftPOS technology on a pilot basis since 2019 and for regular operation since 2024. The requirements for regular operation PCI MPoC and AppPOS are higher than for pilot operation, so that of the SoftPOS providers that have been and are being used in pilot projects, less than half have received regular operation approval to date. The Rubean SoftPOS solution naturally has all certifications.

What concrete examples of success or pilot projects with retailers can you already name?

Jochen Pielage: In the retail sector, shoe retailer Deichmann is our outstanding example of success. We see other success stories in the jewelry, furniture and food retail sectors.

What role do SoftPOS solutions play in competition with major players such as Apple Pay, Google Pay or PayPal?

Jochen Pielage: Our SoftPOS solution accepts Apple Pay, Google Pay and PayPal Pay wallets “out-of-the-box”, as they work with tokenized bank cards. The wallets drive digitalization on the consumer side. Our SoftPOS solution helps with the digitalization of retailers. It is a purely software-based card acceptance solution and therefore the natural counterpart to payment cards and wallets. Both can be installed on the retailer's cell phone at the same time.

How do you think payment behavior will change in the next three years? And how is Rubean preparing for this?

Hermann Geupel: Card organizations are facing increasing competition from alternative payment methods (APMs), which connect retailers and customers by scanning a QR code. In China, Brazil and Switzerland, for example, APMs are already more widespread than here in Germany. As Rubean's solution is purely software-based, these APMs can be easily integrated. The general share of card payments will continue to increase compared to cash payments, as they are safer, more convenient and easier for both retailers and customers. Many tradespeople and other service providers will use their cell phones as payment terminals. More and more self-checkout solutions will significantly speed up the shopping experience and, in cases where the customer would like advice, the consultation will be completed directly with the digital SoftPOS payment acceptance.

What can we expect next from Rubean, new features, partnerships or international expansion?

Jochen Pielage: In the payment ecosystem, we supply a merchant component that is connected to retailers' POS systems and payment service providers. We are constantly adding new payment service providers. Cash register manufacturers integrate us into their cash register systems. The USA is an important new market for us, where several customers are already waiting for our ecosystem to be completed. Thanks to our existing connections, we were already able to go live at the World Nature Conference in Colombia at the end of 2024 and enable card acceptance requirements from around 230 countries.