Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
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Re: Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
#2Most rite aid stores already have the payment stations but they are not activated yet ...
Re: Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
#3I doubt that any consumer really thinks about security when using mobile payments. They have no idea how it works and assume security, just like they do with their credit card. I think the adoption rate has already changed. It seems like Apple Pay has done very well in it's first few months and it's rumoured to be expanding to the UK in the next few months too.
If it is slow one reason might be NFC payments via credit cards. Lots of debit/credit cards have NFC built in now and for payments under £20 you don't need to enter your pin. I see lots of people using that and for small payments it seems more convenient that mobile payments.
Re: Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
#4IMHO the main reason that mobile payments have been slow on the uptake is the user experience sucks. On some of the newer terminals its close to 10 screens you have to work through to complete the transaction.
The experience just needs to be 1) Present your device to the terminal 2) Authorize transaction using said device. If your process has anymore steps you are doing it wrong.
Re: Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
#5IMHO the main reason that mobile payments have been slow on the uptake is the user experience sucks. On some of the newer terminals its close to 10 screens you have to work through to complete the transaction. The experience just needs to be 1) Present your device to the terminal 2) Authorize transaction using said device. If your process has anymore steps you are doing it wrong.
Almost completely agree, except I think maybe you have one step too many.
Mobile payments have been in common use in Japan for years, and there is only one step: present your device. Beep! ("Boom!") you're done.
This works at virtually any convenience store, taxi, train gate, and also at many vending machines (mostly those in train stations).
I think the reason Japan got this so many years ahead of USA etc is that it predates smartphones -- it originally started with (prepaid/pre-charged) cards, which have no screen or UI beyond putting them in a machine to add funds.
Probably the reason behind that was overwhelming use of mass transit; trains and buses provided the compelling consumer use case (not having to go to a machine, and potentially wait in line, to buy a cheap ticket), and were initially the only place the cards worked. They just expanded after that and then makin smartphones do that same job was a no brainer.
Sad caveat: the iPhone (which is my main phone) is the only phone anybody here that I know uses that can't do this.
EDIT: This is not to say that Japan is a utopian vision of mobile payments, though; there were several competing systems before universal compatibility was achieved, and you still can't buy everything with your smart(card|phone)... but they work for upwards of 90% of day-to-day shopping.
Re: Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
#6IMHO the main reason that mobile payments have been slow on the uptake is the user experience sucks. On some of the newer terminals its close to 10 screens you have to work through to complete the transaction. The experience just needs to be 1) Present your device to the terminal 2) Authorize transaction using said device. If your process has anymore steps you are doing it wrong.
Almost completely agree, except I think maybe you have one step too many. Mobile payments have been in common use in Japan for years, and there is only one step: present your device. Beep! ("Boom!") you're done. This works at virtually any convenience store, taxi, train gate, and also at many vending machines (mostly those in train stations). I think the reason Japan got this so many years ahead of USA etc is that it…
Good points. I would expect there to be some circumstances that wouldn't require the authorization step as they would have been preauthorized (small transactions).
Train gates and buses for example should only require presenting the phone to the terminal to authenticate the ticket or pass you previous purchased. The iPhone already has all the pieces (Apple Pay, NFC, and Passbook) in play to do this and I'm sure Apple is already talking to the players in this area to fit them together.
Re: Why Mobile Payments Adoption Has Been Slow and Why That’s About to Change
#7Apple Pay works great at whole foods and walgreens. Takes about 2 seconds to pay. More retailers just need to support NFC payments and/or have staff trained in how to process them.