Worldline and JD Group strengthen existing partnership

By Leandra Monteiro

Worldline, a global leader in  payments services, and JD Sports Group, the British sports-fashion retail company, have strengthened their existing strategic relationship by integrating an additional service to allow customers to make charitable donations using Pennies’ micro-donation application on its payment terminals

Guillaume Pascal, Head of Global Sales & Verticals, Merchant Services, at Worldline said, “We are very excited by this launch. We have a long and hugely successful partnership with JD Group and this additional service we provide will assist in fulfilling their ambitions towards supporting charities. This reinforces Worldline’s ability to partner with third parties and provide additional services outside of payments.”

This launch is another step in the successful strategic partnership between Worldline and JD Group, as the retail group deploys the additional charitable donations service provided by Worldline and Pennies. Currently, the product runs across 151 locations and will be fully implemented in Q3 to circa 679 stores in the UK, across JD Group including Tessuti, Size, Scotts, Go Outdoors, Black and Millets fascia.

Pennies is a FinTech charity, that offers a digital charity box option that can be integrated into the point of sale. Worldline has long been a partner of Pennies, and both have worked together to enable millions of micro-donations to support a huge range of charities since 2011.

Alison Hutchinson CBE, CEO, Pennies said, “Pennies’ 10+ year partnership with Worldline has seen us unlock millions of micro-donation opportunities, and we’re delighted to now be able to bring our digital charity box functionality to JD Sports brands. Giving customers a way to support the Together We Can campaign with affordable, intuitive point of sale digital donations will help JD Sports make a meaningful, positive difference. We’re proud to work with Worldline to support JD Sports and their commitment to the communities they operate in.”

JD customers, when tapping or inserting their card on the payment terminal in JD Group stores, will be prompted by the application, asking if they would like to top-up their purchase by 20p for charity. This solution is entirely digitally driven and once donations have been collected, Pennies grants the majority of funds to the merchant’s nominated charity partner – in this instance, the JD Foundation.

The solution enables faster processing of charitable donations allowing JD Group to make a bigger impact with their charitable work through the JD Foundation as they will receive and increase funds faster through more proactive customer engagement. The anticipated increase in charitable donations will support the JD Foundation Together We Can project and the group’s CSR strategy.

Traci Corrie, JD Foundation Chair and Trustee said, “The JD Group and the JD Foundation are excited to work with Worldline on this project which will raise vital funding for women and girls in the name of Together We Can and will support both local communities and the wider supply chain.  The management of the journey has been seamless and the experience of Worldline has been invaluable in ensuring the successful roll out of this exciting venture.”