Tag: merchant customer exchange

Apple Pay is experiencing resistance from retailers

The holidays are coming, and that may be a time when mobile commerce shines. Those looking to use Apple’s new payment service, Apple Pay, may find it impossible to do so, however, due to resistance from retailers. While several major retail organizations have partnered with Apple to support the launch of its new service, relatively few of these companies have taken steps to adopt mobile point-of-sale systems. These systems are meant to accept payments made from a mobile device, but they are somewhat unpopular because of their high cost.

Lack of incentives from Apple leads retailers to look for other solutions

Apple has not offered retailers an incentive to acquire mobile point-of-sale systems. Apple has also only offered modest support when it comes to providing training material for companies looking to support its new payment system. Moreover, there is an ongoing skirmish within the retail space concerning mobile payments, with many companies favoring different payment solutions. Apple Pay may experience more competition in the retail space in the near future as well.

Merchant Customer Exchange is developing its own payment system that could rival Apple Pay

The Merchant Customer Exchange, a prominent retailer consortium, has plans to offer its own mobile payment service next year. This service is to be linked to a consumer’s bank account, serving as an alternative to credit cards. The service is also being designed to track consumer purchasing habits, allowing it to provide them with discounts on products that they frequently buy. While this service will not be available until 2015, it could disrupt Apple’s plans to be the proverbial king of the hill in the mobile payments space.

Mobile is gathering more momentum throughout the retail industry, driven by consumer demand

Mobile payments have become quite important in the retail space. More people are shopping from their mobile devices than ever before, and the demand for in-store mobile payment support is growing. Retailers are scrambling to accommodate this demand, but many are having trouble doing so because of the wide variety of services and technologies currently available to them.

This has been a long awaited phase of the overall strategy from the Merchant Customer Exchange.

The original announcement that the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) would be releasing a mobile payments system was made quite a while ago, and now the unveiling of this network has finally occurred.

This new feature of the joint venture of some of the largest retailers in the United States should be ready next year.

The MCX announced that its commercial retail launch of this mobile payments service will occur in 2015. The m-commerce venture, as a whole, was initially created in 2012. It includes Walmart, Target, and 7-Eleven, and was created to make it possible for consumers to be able to shop over their smartphones and to use those mobile devices as an alternative to credit cards and debit cards when making a purchase in store.

This mobile payments venture has also included a number of tech partnerships, including Paydient, Gemalto, and FIS.

Together, they have now unveiled the CurrentC network. This will give consumers the ability to use their smartphones to pay for purchases at over 110,000 different American merchant locations across the country, through the use of their smartphones instead of plastic cards. The service will try out a few private pilots, which have already been started (but that will be increased throughout the remainder of this year) in advance of the regional and then the national rollouts that will occur at various times in 2015.

The CurrentC mobile apps for Android and iOS are free and are being readied for download. That said, participating merchants are capable of integrating this tech into their own proprietary applications if that is their choice.

The mobile payments wallet service gives smartphone users the ability to link their existing accounts to their devices, but they will also be able to use gift cards as well as branded credit and debit cards with the app. Then, when they reach the checkout counter while in store, they will be able to simply scan barcodes using their smartphones in order to verify and complete the transaction and purchase the items they want.