SAN DIEGO–A future fraught with change is coming into focus, with electronic messages replacing merchants’ ads in the local Gazette, mobile payments proliferating and even the smallest retailers getting an affordable opportunity to link the point of sale to inventory replenishment.
Those glimpses of what lies ahead emerged during presentations and conversations here this week at the Electronic Transactions Association’s Annual Meeting & Expo.
One change agent, Orange, Calif.-based StreetSavings, represents the convergence of media and payments, replacing ads in the local newspaper, said Pal Flagg, the company’s chief operating officer.
The product makes electronic coupons, discounts and rewards available to consumers through ATMs, mobile phones and payments terminals, Flagg said. The system automatically contacts loyalty club members and coupon recipients by e-mail or text message at intervals chosen by merchants, and the company offers training online and a demonstrator account to ISOs who promote the system, he said.
StreetSavings ties marketing into payment terminals, part of a phenomenon Flagg sees as taking hold with large companies. He offered the example of Google Inc. tying search to payments.
In another look at the future, Greg Hammermaster, president of the payments solutions division of Sage North America, an Irvine, Calif.-based subsidiary of the United Kingdom-based Sage Group PLC, described his company’s approach to tying business software to the point of sale for small merchants.
ISOs that approach Sage with their own business software, such as inventory control, can tie it to Sage payments software, Hammermaster said. Sage is working with nine independent software vendors, some of which are committed to particular ISOs and some of whom are open to taking on additional ISOs. Sage business software can tie into the Sage payments software, too.
Not many small merchants have integrated their POS systems with business software, but Sage executives believe the time is approaching because they have held down the cost, and small businesses have a keen desire to receive payments more quickly, Hammermaster said.
Research commissioned by Sage has also shown a strong motivation among small merchants to develop the capacity to receive mobile payments, he said.
ISOs can bundle the services with payments processing to differentiate themselves from competitors, Hammermaster suggested. Sage also intends to refine its offerings based on suggestions from ISOs, he added.
“We’re very excited about the ISO community,” Hammermaster said.
