Tag: mobile payments market

These large institutions are using data and offers to help to ensure that they hold the market.

Bankers have always seen transactions as their own domain, to the point that they are virtual owners, says recent Finextra research, and now they are hoping to use their might in this arena to lead the mobile payments sector, as well.

To do this, Finextra has reported that they will be deploying data and discounts to eliminate the competition.

The research from Finextra suggested that in order to become the most powerful player in mobile payments, they will be using their data and applying discounts as massive weapons in the battle to hold control over transactions and to be able to provide services that step above and beyond making a purchase.

The Finextra research was based on the responses given by over 180 bankers who were surveyed.

These survey participants were asked about what Finextra referred to as “key issues” in the realm of monetizing mobile payments. Some of the findings produced by the study include that 81 percent of the participating banks are seeking to add value beyond the actual transaction itself. This included making relevant offers to consumers directly at the point of sale.

Moreover, about two out of every three survey participants (67 percent) explained that they were seeking to own and manage the markets not only for the money of a consumer, but also all of the other elements of an individual’s wallet, such as points cards, memberships, and coupons.

Other mobile payments survey findings from the respondents included:

• 60 percent felt that a “trusted banking environment” is the most appropriate place for mobile payments, as opposed to third party smartphone apps.
• 43 percent said that they had a digital wallet offering in the pipeline within the next 6 to 12 months.
• 49 percent would take part in some form of open industry digital wallet initiative.

In terms of the future of mobile payments “big data”, 44 percent of the banks explained that they did not have adequate resources to take full advantage of it, and an additional two out of every three respondents said that smartphone monetization would be a primary big data usage driver, offering the required insight for personalizing targeted offers to consumers.

At the moment, in terms of merchants and consumers, the company may be considered the leader.

PayPal, already a leader in the online transaction industry, is starting to be considered to be the frontrunner in mobile payments, as well, as it boasts the largest estimated number of merchants and consumers within a “digital wallet” sphere.

Furthermore, the company is aiming to expand this possible lead with the addition of new partnerships.

PayPal has just announced that it is partnering with Discover and NCR in order to further boost its mobile payments offerings. The eBay owned company has been a leader in online purchases for fifteen years, but were able to process more than $14 billion in transactions over tablets and smartphones last year.

The PayPal Here mobile payments service has allowed the company to define itself in this channel.

The success that PayPal has had over mobile payments has been considerable enough that they feel that they are starting to chip into the transaction processing sector, which has long been held by major credit card companies. This has also allowed consumers to start to be able to pay for their purchases in a seamless way, using their cards, but without having to actually carry the plastic.

The PayPal Here mobile payments card reader is also rapidly becoming popular among small businesses. This is because it allows those companies to use any smartphone or table to have a small card reader plugged into its audio jack without the need for large POS equipment or its associated rental or purchase fees.

Now that the Discover partnership has been added to PayPal’s growing set of deals, it will mean that the company will be expanding to 2 million more brand name locations by the end of this year.

That said, one of the mobile payments company’s primary goals is to eliminate the need for a card reader altogether so that the app can be used on consumer smartphones in order to replace the plastic cards. Though this service is available at a few thousand stores already, the extra two million will exponentially grow this opportunity.