Judging from the discussions among peers at recent industry conferences and the spate of mobile-based products and services entering the market, the topic is on the minds of many in the industry as they consider their business plans.
Indeed, merchants find themselves faced with increasing options as "every day we are seeing more announcements about mobile payments," notes Todd Ablowitz, president of Double Diamond Group, a Centennial, Colo.-based consulting firm.
But which is better? Cell phones with card swipes or payment-software applications that run on smart phones?
It depends, experts say. Hardware-based systems might benefit brick-and-mortar merchants because the hardware often can help speed up checkout lines. But mobile merchants may prefer software-based systems because they would not have to carry anything other than a phone when going to make a sale or accept a payment.
Before cell phone-enabled payment card acceptance emerged as an option, merchants' only mobile alternative was to buy a dedicated wireless-payment device, which typically includes a relatively high upfront cost, says Paul Rasori, senior vice president of marketing at VeriFone Holdings Inc., a San Jose, Calif.-based payment-terminal maker. A merchant may pay $600 to $800 for a traditional wireless terminal, depending on the reseller, plus an additional $15 to $20 each month for network connections, he says.
Instead, many merchants lacking storefronts, including plumbers, landscapers, photographers and electricians, are considering smart phone-based payment acceptance, says Jamil Adai, president and CEO of Merchants First Choice Inc., an El Paso, Texas-based independent sales organization.
Many smart phone-based products vendors have introduced include hardware and downloadable software application components that support consumer payments. Typically, merchants can swipe customers’ cards using the machines and some devices may offer receipt printers or barcode scanners in addition to the card swipe.
USA ePay, a Los Angeles-based payment gateway, in April introduced PaySaber, a portable card-acceptance device that connects to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and iPod Touch and combines with a downloadable software application.
The software uses the device's network–either AT&T's Edge or 3G networks or the device's wireless Internet connection–to transmit the information to USA ePay's gateway. A barcode scanner accessory that works with the device enables merchants to scan and manage product barcodes at the time of purchase, says Ben Goretsky, the company’s CEO.
Moreover, merchants may e-mail receipts to customers after capturing signatures using the software application. Merchants also can print a receipt onsite using the device, Goretsky says.
More than 200 merchants use the USA ePay hardware, and more than 2,000 have downloaded the software to key in transactions, he says.
In Goretsky's view, the mobile-merchant market is ripe for sellers of mobile-based payment services because many merchants either do not accept cards, or they pay higher card-not-present rates to process card payments.
Mobile-merchants that do not have a swipe available and have to run the card manually experience interchange rates of 2.4% or 2.5% compared with the typical card-present rate of 1.59%, Goretsky says.
Next Generation
Other vendors also are offering mobile-based card-acceptance services.
VeriFone, for example, recently launched a service that works with the iPhone called PayWare Mobile. The terminal maker also is working on a service for other smart phones, Scott Henry, the company’s director of product marketing, tells PaymentsSource.
