CHICAGO–The mobile-commerce market is littered with various wallet models, acceptance devices and applications, and this is forcing merchant-service providers to seek out ways to bring the elements together to help retailers maximize the channel’s potential, notes one mobile-payments executive.
Will Graylin, CEO of mobile-acceptance device maker Roam Data Inc., told attendees here Oct. 25 at the Electronic Transactions Association’s Mobile Commerce Summit that mobile-commerce platforms such as those offered by his company, Square Inc. and VeriFone Systems Inc. should serve as a bridge to link the channel’s various parts, including acceptance and loyalty.
The question then becomes whether merchant-service providers develop their own systems or partner with an existing vendor, Graylin said.
“[Merchant-service providers] need to figure out how mobile adds value to merchants,” he said. “Mobile can drive more sales to merchants.”
The platform must meet certain criteria in different segments to help both small and large merchants to drive more business through mobile card acceptance, payments and loyalty, Graylin said.
Small businesses should include the ability to turn a smartphone into a point-of-sale payment-acceptance device with any number of dongles available in the market, he added. “This is the merchant’s tool to get their transition started [into accepting mobile payments],” he told attendees.
A provider’s platform also must address mobile loyalty for consumers, Graylin added.
“The technology is getting to the point where small businesses can create their own mobile offer and send it out to a single customer if needed,” he said.
Large merchants have different needs and require customized options, such as mobile-payment acceptance in a line-busting scenario, Graylin noted.
Line-busting refers to a checkout method in which merchant staff members use a handheld wireless device to process transactions on the floor instead of requiring customers to wait in line at checkout. Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. uses such a system during peak hours at its popular restaurant locations.
Large merchants also require a mobile application that supports a simple and smooth checkout experience for consumers, Graylin said. “The integration of mobile checkout [within the app] becomes important because it can tie in to a mobile wallet [already on the phone],” he added.
Graylin believes mobile wallets will help to link these elements together.
“[Mobile wallets] are going to touch all these spaces,” he said. “All of this is taking place as we speak.”
Graylin suggested that conference attendees focus on a desired segment if they already are working with merchants on mobile integration. He also urged merchant-service providers to pick the right partners when choosing the platform.
Mobile is not about owning the technology but about “owning retailers by delivering value first,” Graylin said.
While Graylin addressed how providers can help merchants with mobile initiatives, another industry observer cited the challenges that exist to the channel’s widespread adoption.
Merchants still need to buy in to the mobile proposition, said Karen Webster, CEO of management consulting firm Market Platform Dynamics. “If there is no acceptance, there is no mobile,” she said.
Merchants will believe mobile payments has a future if enough consumers want to use the technology. Moreover, merchants must have certainty about the channel’s direction so they can create budgets to account for mobile, Webster added.
“Mobile is going to happen, no doubt,” she said. “The question becomes how quickly the other questions get answered.
For now, consumers and merchants are not clear about mobile’s value proposition, Webster noted. “You need both merchants and consumers to agree that mobile has a greater value than what mobile has been defined as today,” she said.
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