Near-field communication trials at some Best Buy and 7-Eleven stores are ending, as the retailers haven't seen a payoff for the costs involved in enabling the technology. The two retailers have announced that they will be shutting down their near-field communications capabilities in their retail locations, pointing to further struggles for NFC-based mobile payments.

NFC has been weak to take off as a mobile payment technology despite the efforts of Google Wallet and Isis. Best Buy and 7-Eleven are realizing that it is not worth the cost for them, while at the same time hinting at the possibility of branded plays for their own mobile payment solutions.

“NFC was enabled at some 7-Eleven locations several years ago,” said Margaret Chabris, director of corporate communications at 7-Eleven, Dallas. “As these older PIN pads have been replaced/upgraded, we have chosen not to invest to enable NFC. This decision was made based on several factors, but it is difficult to build the business case given low customer acceptance, transaction costs and other factors.

“There is not much difference between tapping or swiping a card,” she said. “For various reasons NFC-based mobile payments options have yet to gain traction, and NFC provides no real benefit to the customer over other less costly options.

Read more here: http://www.mobilecommercedaily.com/nfc-takes-another-blow-as-7-eleven-best-buy-shut-it-down