Variety chain Wilkinson is to trial contactless payments across 25 stores, ahead of a potentialroll-out of the technology across its 350 stores.

Want to know more?

Visit Retail Week Knowledge Bank for detailed data and analysis

Wilkinson said it hopes contactless technology will help reduce queues in stores. It allows customers to pay for goods under the value of £15 by scanning their card or a mobile phone against a reader, with no need to enter a PIN or sign their name.

Boots, Clinton Cards and Poundland have also run trials, but have not yet rolled the technology out on a large scale.

A Wilkinson spokesman said: “We know that many of our customers have to shop at peak times and this is when queues can occur.

“We believe contactless will help those customers who are under time pressure.

“Contactless also fits perfectly with our aim to constantly improve customer service and satisfaction by harnessing the latest retail technologies.”

Barclaycard, which is providing the technology for Wilkinson, said the number of contactless terminals has risen from 25,000 to 52,000 since the start of 2010.