UK retail bank Barclays has added two new features to its Pingit payments app, ‘mobile checkout’ and ‘buy it’.

Mobile checkout, says the bank, enables a swifter checkout experience through the ‘Pay with Barclays Pingit’ button.

Like the original Pingit service launched in February 2012, in which users send and receive money by exchanging mobile numbers (rather than sharing account details), mobile checkout avoids the need to enter large amounts of personal details onto the mobile device.

“For mobile enabled businesses, this is a great way to increase sales conversion by reducing payment input errors and increased consumer assurance at checkout,” said Mike Walters, head of UK corporate payments at Barclays. “For new players to the market, it is an easy, low-risk way to enter into mobile commerce.”

The ‘buy it’ feature on Barclays Pingit, which enables instant purchases from advertising and billboards, has been expected.

By logging onto Barclays Pingit, consumers can buy products direct from an advert by scanning a Quick Response (QR) code.

Barclays Pingit displays the product information – price, merchant information, delivery information and stock levels. Confirming these details enables a Barclays Pingit user to initiate an instant purchase, which can be delivered to a chosen address. Once confirmed, the customer receives a confirmatory SMS and email.

“Mobile commerce has grown more than 250 per cent over the last two years and it is important that businesses provide consumers with a convenient and easy payment method through this channel,” added Walters.

Barclays quotes research by Harris Interactive showing that while 68 per cent of mobile and tablet owners have tried to make a purchase on a mobile or tablet, as many as two-thirds of those have abandoned the purchase due to issues with the payment platform.

The Barclays Pingit app works with Android 2.2 and above, IOS 4.2 and above, and Blackberry OS 4.6 and above.