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mobile money
special section Kaboom! Mobile Meets Loyalty
Mobile Wallets’ Next Chapter: More Change, Robust Features and Merchants Joining the Fray
An explosion of innovation in mobile payments technol- ogy and apps has produced thousands of mobile wallets in the past few years, and though consumers have yet to broadly embrace these concepts, their potential to realign consumers’ preferences and drive new loyalty trends is undeniable.
Change is the only constant in mobile wallets at the moment, according to analysts, as providers seek the smartest technology and strategies to improve and stream- line the payments experience on- line and through mobile devices. Big names in mobile wallets, in- cluding PayPal, Google, Amazon and Softcard, the recently re- branded mobile payments consor- tium of AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile, all made key changes this year (see right), and many more modifications are expected as mobile payments technology rapidly evolves.
It’s still early days for mobile wallets, and many expect to see major shifts and reshufflings in the year ahead. Apple Inc.’s mobile payments debut with Apple Pay is galvanizing mar- ket participants. Visa, MasterCard and American Express are on board, along with several large banks and merchants, including Target and McDonald’s. At press time, Discover Financial Services was in talks with Apple about joining the service. Apple aims to change the payment experience with its sleek new NFC phones. But how merchants inte- grate Apple Pay for loyalty programs and in-app purchases will be key.
Many Players, Few Survivors?
“There will be many players in this space, but only a few are likely to succeed in the long run,” warns Rick Oglesby, a senior analyst
with Double Diamond Group. Winners will find the most effective way to capitalize on broad conver- gence trends across many different
industries, powering new payments innovations with new online and mobile technologies, according to Oglesby. And mobile wallets are only one example of many new digital and mobile approaches to transform commerce, he observes. “It’s not about the wallet, but rather the ability to improve the customer experience and deliver new busi- ness to merchants.”
One example of the new breed of consumer loyalty tools is First Data Corp.’s OfferWise platform, which en- ables consumers to link any pay- ment card to merchant-funded deals promoted through online platforms and social media. Early this year, OfferWise began supporting mer- chant offers via Microsoft’s Bing Offers, and more such deals are in the pipeline, according to First Data.
Despite the feverish activity in mobile wallets and digitally deliv- ered deals, consumers are only
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