Today, we have companies, services and businesses who wish to rely on mobile payment gateways. ‘Mobile payments’ is one term that has been creating buzz for quite sometime now. But, is the large scale implementation happening anytime soon? In this article, we shall look at exploring NFC and other mobile payment solutions, the consumer response and their future which still seems to be gloomy.
Research says, there will be 448 million mobile payment users performing transactions worth $617 billion by 2016. Out of many mobile payment techniques, Near Field Communications (NFC) that allows secure data transfer once you tap your device onto another NFC enabled device, has caught the eye of the business. Executives in the finance industry are game for it. But, how is it going to benefit retailers? Is the consumer open to the idea of a mobile wallet?
According to a 2010 Forrester survey in the U.S. 18 percent of respondents were interested in mobile payments. In 2012, the percentage had increased by 12 points. Another research indicated people showing interest in tapping their phones at points of Sale (POS) to make purchases. To what extent?? Although contactless card and mobile payments are going places, such payment systems are being preferred by consumers only for low cost items. The consumer is a little apprehensive to seek such a system if the limit for payment is high, especially when the contactless payments did not involve entering a PIN. What if you have to enter a PIN, while using NFC? The convenience these contactless payments offer is lost if the PIN has to entered everytime you make a payment.
Mobile payment is believed to be the next big thing as far as banks, businesses and wireless retailers are concerned. Once implemented, it might turn out to be the prime source of revenue. The mobile network operators might be content with this as it might reduce the churn while bankers would appreciate the volume of intermediary payments. Let us not forget that beyond payments, it has couple of other benefits for the consumer such as digital keys, tickets and newspaper downloads.
There are few hiccups before we enjoy the advantages of this technology. The whitepaper by M for Mobile on NFC and mobile payments makes a mention of how intricate the situation is for retailers. If on one hand mobile payments promise better cross and upselling, right on the other hand, it involves purchase and installation of cash registers that can handle NFC tapping at Point-of-sale that will cost a pretty penny. There’s one more…Lack of NFC enabled handsets on the market. The much awaited iPhone 5 from Apple, which was expected to represent the next generation of mobile also disappointed by not adopting NFC as they have a patent for an alternative technology for mobile payments.
The technological advances in NFC & mobile payments are growing at a considerable pace and so is the market. A research by M for Mobile suggests that NFC handset penetration would reach 51 percent by 2015. Once, it becomes a part of the feature-set of the devices available in the market, NFC would definitely be a viable solution for mobile payments.
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