10/09/2012

The Fattening Mobile Wallet

One of the key themes at the Cartes 2012 show in Paris next month is the growth of the mobile wallet, arguably the most important, potentially market-changing trend in the payments industry. A report from Juniper Research this past summer estimated that the NFC retail payments market will surpass $180 billion worldwide by 2017, and more than 25% of the mobile users in the U.S. and Western Europe will make in-store purchases with their mobile wallet.

Those are lofty forecasts, to be sure, but recent developments within the mobile payments world—and from retailers, in particular—only support the expectation for continued exponential growth of NFC mobile payments.   Just last week, coffee giant Starbucks said it plans to accept purchases from Square starting in November and plans to list all of its stores in the Square directory.  (For more info on this story from Payments Source, read the full story here: http://bit.ly/Peqj34) 

Meanwhile, more large retailers are joining the Merchant Customer Exchange, formed this past August with the objective of creating a new platform for mobile-based transactions. At the beginning of October, news emerged that Gap Inc. and Bed, Bath & Beyond were joining the consortium. 

The mobile track at Cartes on Nov. 6 begins with a panel that asks who will win in the era of mobile payments.  The panel is anchored by Ian Hermon, director of payments security for Thales, the information systems security company, and Zilvinas Bareisis, senior analyst for consulting company Celent.  Bareisis recently posted a blog about the European Commission approving ‘Project Oscar’, which the leading telecom companies in the UK are launching to drive mobile payments in the country.

At the other end of the spectrum, the program also focuses on merchant customers, whose comfortability with the mobile wallet—not just with security, but in terms of reliability and convenience—is one of the keys to sustaining its rapid expansion.  Merchant Warehouse’s director of product marketing, Matt Cicciari, will speak on customer engagement during the afternoon session.

SourceMedia

Oct 9, 2012 10:06:07 AM | Guest Contribution, Market & Trends

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