August 16th, 2013 by Admin
Facebook is doing early testing of a payment system to store credit card data and processes transactions through PayPal or other merchant service providers including Stripe or Braintree. Facebook would store credit card data for use in purchases in Facebook Gifts and games played on Facebook. The thought behind the move being that it makes it easier for people to make mobile transactions on third party apps giving strength to their advertising platform.
In a statement, Facebook said…
“We are working on a very small test that gives people the option to use their payment information already stored on Facebook to populate the payment form when they make a purchase in a mobile app. The app then processes and completes the payment. The test is designed to make it easier and faster for people to make a purchase in a mobile app by simply pre-populating your payment information. It will be a very small test with 1-2 partners. Additionally, this test does not involve moving the payment processing away from an app’s current payments provider, such as Paypal. We continue to have a great relationship with our payment processing partners, and this product is simply to test how we can help apps provide a simpler commerce experience.”
This marks a bold move whether or not Facebook is actually conducting the transaction itself. Higher conversion rates on their advertising for app developers and advertisers. Mobile Wallets have a proven success for the likes of Amazon, Apple and Google where repeat transactions are the norm. The move could signal that Facebook is looking to move further into e-commerce and digital transaction payments and to buy or build their own payment processing division. It’s also a signal that digital identity and verification could be on the horizon.
Combined with the data Facebook already knows about its users, the company could store things like clothing sizes, shoe sizes, travel itineraries, music or event preferences and much more. This could be a catalyst to send that data automatically to vendors at the point of sale. Things like email addresses are already shared to third party apps if you allow them to. Loyalty rewards might be offered to users to allow the data to be shared with vendors for deeper demographic information.
In addition to mobile payments, Facebook has experimented with virtual currency transactions with its Facebook Credits initiative. They exited the strategy because mostly because developers moved to other virtual currencies like BitCoin and LiteCoin. Recently Facebook Gifts lets users send one another physical gifts and presents a gift suggestion when it notifies users of a birthday. Pulling down the barrier and simplifying a complicated transaction could make it a boon to retailers looking toward mobile payment processing.
Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale Tagged with: digital, electronic, Faceboo, mobile payment, mobile wallet, PayPal, Stripe
China
People’s Online Daily is reporting that online electronic payment transactions carried out on Chinese mobile payment providers is expected to be above 9 Trillion yuan, which is $1.45 Trillion in U.S. Currency. China’s mobile electronic payments in 2012 were at 800 billion yuan. That sets an increase in mobile payments made on smartphones and tablets at 265% over the previous year. With more and more Chinese citizens coming online analysts say that the steady growth in the mobile payment landscape is expected to continue to rise well into 2020. Last year, mobile electronic payment transactions rose 66% to nearly 3.7 trillion yuan. Read more of this article »
Posted in Mobile Payments Tagged with: China, Digital Wallet, electronic payments, Illinois, India, mobile payment, mobile wallet, Processing, transactions
Yet another payment solution on the horizon is the MCE initiative for smartphones and tablets. The new solution is being led by 7-eleven, BestBuy, CVS Pharmacy, Darden Restaurants, Lowes, Publix, Sears, Shell Oil, Sunoco, Target, Dunkin’ Donuts, Bed Bath & Beyond and WalMart. According to their website, “Development of the mobile application is underway, with an initial focus on a flexible solution that will offer merchants a customizable platform with the features and functionality needed to best meet consumers’ needs.” The company intends to make their application available on all major smartphone platforms.
This latest solution is a mobile wallet that has serious potential to change the way consumers fulfill their mobile payments. The mobile app links a customers smartphone directly to their bank account allowing merchants to accept non-cash payment without involving credit card processing fees.
Though this is a significant shift from other mobile digital wallet schemes, the biggest difference might be in Loyalty Card programs used to entice existing customers to stop and shop. The creative potential for these types of programs go well beyond gift card processing and extend to e-mail and social networking. Customers could receive special offers based on the word of mouth, social sharing they do for the large retailers.
This mobile payment solution is initially just for the big boys though. They are catering to their own needs currently and there is no future consideration for small to medium size business in their digital wallet. With how fast things change in the mobile payment industry, this too could change and usher in new currencies for universal digital wallet payments.
Posted in Uncategorized Tagged with: Digital Wallet, Merchant Customer, mobile payment, mobile wallet, payments, smartphone, tablet
The Pew states more than half of adults in the United States now own a smartphone. The cost of not having a smartphone these days outweighs the cost of having a smart phone device. Social networking drove the rise and new smartphone and tablet apps are set to explode.
The Pew’s smartphone ownership report states that 56% of American adults now carry a smartphone according to this weeks report. Ranking the highest so far in smartphone saturation previous numbers were at 46% last year and 35% two years ago. A major milestone indeed. More than one third have a cell phone that isn’t a smartphone and 9% that don’t own a smart phone nor a cell phone. Read more of this article »
Posted in Smartphone Tagged with: Amazon, Digital Wallet, e-commerce, electronic, google, m-commerce, mobile commerce, mobile payment, smartphone
