Everyone’s talking about mobile credit card processing.
Magazine editors, blogger and pundits are constantly forecasting the next development, the next startup to seize the industry, and how it will all affect merchant service providers. With so much buzz, it’s hard to keep up.
But the gist is that consumers are slowly adopting mobile payments, and that this rate should soon increase. A recent survey by MarketLive survey showed that during the 2012 holiday season, 16 percent of consumers planned to do all or most of their shopping on a tablet or smartphone. This was up from 3 percent in 2011.
Not Just One Option
When many merchant service providers think about mobile credit card processing and mobile payments, they think of Square. The company has been in the news a lot recently. They announced a partnership with Starbucks (Square will process all debit and credit card transactions for the company). They announced fixed merchant pricing. And they launched a television ad campaign.
Although Square is the big name in mobile processing right now, remember that there are many other options available. Your processor can offer you other solutions to compete with Square, including ePN Mobile, Magtek QwickPAY, VeriFone PAYware Mobile and TSYS Mobile Payment Acceptance.
The Jury is Out On...
Mobile Wallets. There’s a lot of buzz around them and many options have been launched, but consumers aren’t adopting them quickly. Furthermore, there aren’t many standards for mobile wallets, so some in the industry are questioning their security.
Near Field Communications (NFC). Near Field Communications is a type of technology that some in the industry have praised as the next big thing for mobile processing. But at a recent conference, many of the speakers were not as optimistic. NFC isn’t the only way data can be exchanged between mobile phones and POS systems. So the future of mobile payments doesn’t necessarily depend on it.
And the Future Holds...
Mobile credit card processing is in flux right. No one really knows the future. But you can count on one thing: the technology that becomes king will be the one consumers like best.
Most likely, it won’t be a simple option. It will probably include coupons and tie in to loyalty programs, offering extra value to the consumer instead of just being another way to pay.
What you think the future holds for mobile credit card processing? Which solution do you think will grow to dominate the industry? How will it affect you? Leave a comment below. We’re eager to hear your predictions.
Jeff Zimmerman is Vice President of Product Management and Marketing at Clearent. He has 15 years of experience in finance, marketing and product management, and has held management positions at Network Solutions and Intuit. Clearent is staying on the cutting edge of mobile credit card processing (http://www.clearent.com/financial-institutions/products-services/) and as one of the fastest growing merchant service providers, (http://www.clearent.com/about/) offers an array of different mobile payment solutions.
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