Over the years merchants have done a good job in keeping up with the different forms of payment methods customers have chosen to use. From good ole cash to checks to debit and credit cards, merchants have always striven to offer the most recent and convenient forms of accepting payments to their customers.
The last few years have been no different especially with the rise of smartphones. With these devices achieving widespread adoption, merchants have struggled to keep up with the types of payments their customers want to utilize. Regardless, smartphones hold tremendous potential in how customers will
choose to pay for their purchases. However, with innovation increasing at such a rapid rate why hasn’t the promise of mobile payments been achieved?
Customer Benefits – The major question that needs to be answered is how does a customer benefit from using physical credit and debit cards to a smartphone? Since there is no clear value add for consumers to make the switch, little, if any, incentive remains for them to start using their phones to make payments.
Too Many Choices – Oftentimes, choice is good. Other times, choice can be overwhelming. That’s the dilemma consumers face today. Mobile payment providers range from traditional payment service providers to phone carriers to major card companies to individual stores and even tech titans. In addition, not all smartphones may be able to support mobile payments. Some may require NFC to make a mobile payment others may require a specific carrier to be used. It seems that a high number of choices has led to fragmentation and confusion within the market.
It’s A Hassle – Even though mobile payments offer a lot of promise, in their current state they can be a hassle to utilize. One aspect consumers are wary about when it comes to mobile payments will be whether they will be inundated with alerts. Who wants to receive an alert ever 5 minutes from your local grocery store about the specials they’re running on toilet paper? In addition, with smartphones becoming even more powerful, consumers utilizing mobile payments will see even further demands on their smartphone’s battery. This may cause problems should a consumer need to make a mobile payment during an emergency.
Even though mobile payments have some way to go for their adoption to accelerate and become mainstream, their definitely are some issues to work out. As a merchant it’s important to keep an eye on these trends so when this does occur your business is ready to leverage this new payment option allowing your company to continue to grow.
