Category: Mobile Payments

Report suggests that Android Pay could be out competitors in the mobile payments space

Android Pay is expected to become the leading mobile payments tool in the coming years, according to a report from Digitimes Research. Android Pay was initially released in September of this year and serves as Google’s latest mobile payments solution. Google had released a payment platform years ago, called Google Wallet, but this platform has struggled to find traction with consumers. The company does not have plans to kill Google Wallet, with Android Pay working alongside the platform.

Apple Pay may fall behind Android Pay when it comes to supporting consumers interested in mobile payments

Google’s latest payment solution is competing with Apple Pay for the favor of consumers. According to Digitimes Research, Android Pay has three major advantages over its competitor, with the first being that more banks and retailers are willing to embrace the solution. More consumers are also expected to have Android devices as opposed to iOS devices, with Android accounting for 75% of global smartphone shipments in 2015. The accessibility of Apple Pay is somewhat limited, as the platform is only available to those with high-end iOS devices.

Lack of administrative fees make the solution attractive to retailers and banks

One of the greater advantages of Android Pay is that users, banks, and retailers are not required to pay a service or administration fee for using the solution. This has made Android Pay very attractive to businesses interested in mobile payments. Android Pay also supports multiple identification technologies, including biometrics, that make transactions more secure. The solution also recognizes graphics, such as QR codes, making payments more convenient for consumers.

Heightened security makes Android Pay more attractive

Android Pay’s focus on security may become one of the major benefits of the platform. Security has long been an issue facing the mobile payments space, with many consumers opting out of mobile commerce over fears that their financial information would be compromised. Google’s approach to the security problem is heavily focused on protecting consumer information, which has made it very popular among consumers interested in mobile payments.

Vibes has now announced that it will be providing those capabilities to the Universal Behavior Exchange.

Mobile marketing firm, Vibes, has announced that it will be providing the Universal Behavior Exchange (UBX) from IBM with new capabilities for mobile wallet and advertising within that platform.

This should make it easier for marketers to be able to connect data throughout their various solutions.

The addition of the mobile wallet and marketing capabilities is meant to simplify and expand the ability of marketers to engage with their customers and understand their wants and expectations in the moment. Through the UBX at IBM, Vibes will make it possible for marketing firms to be able to boost their visibility into important data for their campaigns running over smartphones and tablets. This will make it possible to boost their conversion rates and enhance the experience for consumers throughout their shopping journey.

This improvement should be felt through everything from a mobile wallet to push notifications.

By way of the UBX platform, the mobile marketing platform from Vibes has been integrated with a range of the different existing mobile commerce offerings from IBM. This will make it possible for marketers to benefit from the following:

• Customizing their mobile marketing campaigns at scale through the IBM Campaign feature in order to allow for targeted text messages, offers over mobile payments services, and others. This could improve the seamlessness of the experience for a much more natural shopping journey.
• Bring behavioral insights and data from e-commerce and m-commerce websites together through IBM Digital Analytics by way of all mobile marketing touch-points. This could provide a more complete understanding for considerably improved campaigns moving ahead.
• Take advantage of the IBM Marketing Cloud in order to gain email insight for improved communication with customers by way of smartphones and tablets so that targeted mobile wallet offers (using Android Pay and Apple Wallet) will be able to be delivered through email Manage. This will also make it possible for IBM Engage Mobile to be used for sending push notifications based on the behavior, data, and business rules of consumers.