Amazon launches payments for other e-commerce sites

Amazon has launched a service that enables its customers to pay on other e-commerce sites via their Amazon account data. Called ‘Login and Pay with Amazon,’ the service sells payment processing for participating retailers.

Amazon has more than 215 million active customer accounts. The Amazon payment service works on personal computers, smartphones and tablets. Site developers employ Amazon widgets and APIs, or application programming interfaces.

Login and Pay with Amazon enables companies to make millions of customers by inviting online shoppers with Amazon credentials to access their account information safely and securely with a single login. Login and Pay with Amazon helps replace guest checkouts with recognized customers, leading to improved services which could include: managing and tracking orders, purchase history detail, special discounts, instant access to shipping addresses and payment methods.

Amazon previously called its payment service Checkout by Amazon, but rebranded it Amazon Payments. In May, Internet Retailer wrote about Autoplicity.com’s experiences adding the Amazon payment tool.

Amazon says it will not share customers’ credit card information gained via the payment tool, and that it will cover purchases made through the service in the same way purchases are covered from Amazon.com.

“This [newly launched] service is more of a repackaging of Checkout by Amazon than as something new,” says a payments industry analyst. “Amazon has been a challenger to PayPal for some time in the Internet payments arena, but PayPal has the dominant market share. One key reason is that PayPal is not viewed as a direct competitor to the merchants it serves while Amazon often is.”

PayPal, part of eBay, is the clear leader in so-called alternative payments, used by 84% of consumers who pay online with alternatives to payment cards, according to a report earlier this year from Javelin Strategy & Research. The report, based on a 2012 survey, also showed that 42% of consumers pay with credit cards when making online retail and travel purchases, up from 40% in the 2011 survey, and 29% pay with debit cards, down from 30%.

The new Amazon service is a “great deal” more than a warmed-over Checkout.

He points out that the number of Amazon’s active accounts is much more than the active users of all eBay’s payment services. Including consumers with PayPal or Bill Me Later accounts, that base totaled 132.4 million in the second quarter, up nearly 17% from 113.2 million a year earlier, according to eBay.  And Amazon’s customers trust the security of making payments through the e-retailer, and have grown accustomed to the convenience of doing so. Amazon is No. 1 in the Internet Retailer.

For e-retailers, it’s yet another payment method they might want to evaluate. “Amazon is a damn big brand. If you bring that many users along with [the payment service], then e-retailers will give it serious consideration. It will give PayPal some competition.

 

 

Posted in e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: Amazon, amazon.com, api, application programming interface, checkout, credit cards, customers, debit cards, e-commerce, e-retailer, ebay, internet retailer, online, orders, payment methods, payment processing, payment service, PayPal, purchase, shoppers, travel purchases

As Capital One drops support Isis’ future darkens

As Capital One drops support Isis’ future darkens

Capital One pulling its support points to the challenges that near-field-communications is having with scale as non-NFC mobile wallet initiatives take off, as Isis gears up for a broader launch.

Capital One was one of Isis’ three founding card issuers, and the company’s drop of support as the company prepares for a larger roll-out emphasizes the challenges in gaining scale and momentum for mobile payments. PayPal and Apple’s recently announced their own mobile payment options that also avoid NFC reflect the opportunity that marketers see in services beyond NFC.

“Capital One dropping its support for Isis is significant in what it telegraphs about the problems issuers will continue to face with the wallet provider.” “Issuers must pay each time a consumer loads their card onto the wallet.”

“The caveat is that whether or not a consumer uses the card, the issuer must pay to have it in the Isis Wallet. Card issuers are interested in encouraging card spend whereas Isis is purely interested in getting consumers to link their cards to the wallet. This conflict of interest will continue to be problematic.”

Losing support
Capital One pulling its support from Isis could indicate that the financial institution did not see a substantial amount of consumers using their mobile devices to pay during the pilot for repeat visits, which is key in driving consumer adoption ahead. The number of mobile payment options available for card issuers to partner with is clearly growing, meaning that Capital One might see a bigger opportunity elsewhere.

However, Capital One’s pull-out could be well-timed since Isis is signing new partners, and Isis has an opportunity to recover quickly. “Many financial institutions and merchant acquirers see PayPal and Apple as threats and the moves that these companies are making could cause financial institutions, payment networks and acquirers to accelerate their mobile payments efforts in response to the perceived threat.” Since Isis is looking to partner with the financial institutions, payment networks and acquirers, the moves made by Apple and PayPal could drive partners into Isis’ embrace.

 

Google expands mobile wallet

Yesterday Google made a significant upgrade to Google Wallet that continues to focus on NFC, but also adds additional payment options for consumers. The Google Wallet app has been updated to let consumers send money to friends and family in the U.S. via an email address. Consumers can either send money directly from their bank account or from Google Wallet balance. Additionally, the app is now available for all Android devices that run the 2.3 operating system and higher. Previously, Google Wallet was only available on select Android devices. Consumers can also store loyalty cards from retailers that can be redeemed by scanning a mobile device in-store. Similar to Apple’s Passbook, Google Wallet will now also alert consumers when they are nearby to a store where they have a loyalty program.

Google said that it plans to support the one of 29 different NFC-enabled devices with NFC, but the company’s focus on additional features points to NFC as un-scalable by itself. In fact, Yankee Group estimates that 18 percent of device owners have a mobile device that supports NFC.

Apple, PayPal news
The interest around NFC has also significantly decreased as both PayPal and Apple are rolling out their own mobile payment options. For example, PayPal recently introduced its PayPal Beacon device that lets consumers pay hands-free in exchange for downloading the company’s app. The technology uses Bluetooth to pick up when a consumer is in-store to trigger a payment.

Apple is also working its way around NFC with its iBeacon technology that is rolling out in iOS 7. The technology lets marketers use Bluetooth around stores that can then be used to push out offers and relevant deals.

Both Apple and PayPal’s announcements emphasize the slow adoption that NFC has had in the United States. Although the technology has taken off internationally, it has had a harder time picking up steam in the U.S. because of the low number of NFC-enabled devices.

Broader roll-out
After running pilot programs, Isis is gearing up for a broader roll-out nationally. To date, most of the activity around mobile wallets has focused around the payment section of mobile wallets, which do not have as strong of a value proposition as the coupon and offers side that Isis is forced to prove to merchants.

Additionally, the education behind getting consumers aware of how to use the technology is still clunky, as evidenced by a test at a participating location in Austin by a local mobile consultant.

“Anything in the digital wallet space is a high-risk/high-reward venture at the moment and there are few if any profits being made in this space.” “When that is the case, business continuation is more a question of resolve than a question of competition.” Having multiple players in the market increases the overall quantity of marketing efforts that will take place in the mobile payments arena, increasing the probability that at least one product will succeed.

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Reader Terminal, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication Tagged with: Apple, Capital One, google, ISIS, mobile, near field communications, nfc, Passbook, payment, PayPal, wallet, wallets

PayPal announces updated app, device for hands-free, in store payment.

PayPal announces updated app, device for hands-free, in store payment.

A busy few days at PayPal. Late last week, the global payments giant announced a major update to its app for Android and iOS.  The new features have a strong mobile payments bent. And now, the company has announced the planned roll-out of “Beacon,” which uses Bluetooth Low Energy Technology to let customers check into retail stores and pay by verbal consent.

Paypal’s President calls the solution PayPal’s “most significant contribution to date in reinventing  the in-store shopping experience.”

Beacon is a new add-on technology that merchants plug into an A/C outlet. When a PayPal customer walks into a participating store and agrees to check-in, Beacon triggers a quick vibration or sound to confirm a check-in; customer’s photo then appears on a point-of-sale screen. To pay, the customer simply gives a verbal confirmation. “No wallet and no card. Nothing to do. Not even touching your phone.

BLE was chosen to resolve some problems posed by traditional geo-location, including power consumption. It will look for any store running a PayPal compatible POS system, and will only transmit information to PayPal or to the merchant if the customer agrees to check in.

The solution aims to improve on the credit-card-swiping experience.  PayPal figured the only better way to pay would be to do nothing.

The company will be piloting  Beacon in the fourth quarter.

New App  

PayPal’s vastly redesigned app for creating a more seamless in-store shopping experience is getting a lot of kudos across the web.

A New tab called “Shop” the first thing that appears when the app is opened, it displays nearby stores or restaurants that accept PayPal payments.  Users can check in and open a tab, then select various payment methods from the check-in screen. Upon payment, the app generates a confirmation alert and sends an email receipt.

You’ve really got access to your entire wallet in the app.

The app also lets you order food ahead of your arrival bypassing the line.  The feature works through PayPal’s partnership with Eat24 . Dinners can pay at the table, and at some locations, order more drinks.

For the first time, the app includes a Bill Me Later tab that lets users apply to finance PayPal purchases, and it integrates coupons and offers.

The company wanted the new app to help solve problem, and that payment isn’t something they typically complain about. So they focused on other potentially problematic experiences in the retail environment, waiting in line, waiting to pay the bill at their table and keeping track of coupons.

Posted in Credit Card Reader Terminal, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: Android, app, Apple, card, credit-card-swiping, geo-location, iOS, payment, PayPal, POS, retail, system, wallet

To Ease In-App Purchase Pain Facebook Adds Autofill

Facebook this week began testing a new feature dubbed “Autofill with Facebook” that aims to simplify mobile purchases by filling in customers’ credit card information for them, thus eliminating the need to type it in each time. This “Autofill with Facebook 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,” Facebook spokesperson told the E-Commerce Times. “The app then processes and completes the payment.”  The feature “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.”During the test period, which began Monday evening, the feature will show up only to Facebook users who have already provided credit card information to the social network — in other words, those who have made in-game purchases or bought gifts for friends.

Facebook has partnered with PayPal, Braintree and Stripe as financial partners on the service, which is initially available only on the e-commerce iOS apps JackThreads and Mosaic.

Ironing Out the Wrinkles Autofill with Facebook isn’t a move to compete with PayPal and credit card companies, but to complement payment services by adding a layer for convenience, much the way Facebook, Google and Amazon have created a single login that works across a network of websites.

“Facebook is not interested in being a payments company,” an analyst, told the E-Commerce Times. “Instead, it is aiming to be the entity that irons out bumps in the payment process — something it is well-positioned to do. “With Autofill, Facebook will act as the lubricant that makes the commerce experience more seamless, providing a number of benefits to all stakeholders.”

Partners in the deal ensure that Facebook will succeed in Autofill with Facebook, it doesn’t care about payments, it cares about reaping the benefits that come from making the payment experience better.”

‘The Potential to Be Lucrative’ There could be significant financial benefits as well. “This approach has the potential to be lucrative for Facebook in that it will help plug the mobile conversion gap,” McKee suggested. “If Facebook can prove to its partner merchants that an ad on its site led to a purchase, the validity of its platform can easily be proven. Ideally, this will help convince other companies to advertise with Facebook as well.”

Taking it a step farther, Facebook will also gain transaction data, which McKee believes has considerable value. “Facebook can leverage transaction data with what it already knows about us for precision ad targeting. This will increase the relevance and placement of ads on Facebook.”

The Security Factor While many mobile customers will appreciate the Autofill function, security issues still lurk in the back of every consumer’s mind. Yet while privacy concerns have been an ongoing issue for Facebook, it has a good track record where security is concerned. “Facebook has been relatively incident-free when it comes to security breaches.”  “However, this is more a problem of consumer perception. Will consumers feel comfortable storing their payment credentials with a social media platform?

“Facebook is already approaching ‘big brother’ status, and this takes it one step further.” “To succeed, Facebook must provide visibility into what it plans to do with transaction data.”

‘It’s a No-Brainer’ The convenience factor, meanwhile, could be a compelling one for consumers. “It’s no-brainer useful to mobile users…who wants to enter their credit card on a mobile phone more than once?” “It could be more secure than mobile payment alternatives.” If Facebook gets past its hurdles, it will also succeed in building strengths in areas where it has been lacking to date.

“Right now Facebook isn’t super strong at the conversion side of  e-commerce.” “Autofill will give them a lot of data about purchases, which might help them remedy that.”

‘Strategic Smarts and Ambition’ As for those benefits to Facebook, there are potentially many. One example,”Autofill admits them to the online payments world.”

“This is another example of the strategic smarts and ambition of Zuck.” “One gets the sense that he wants to be a major competitor for everything online.”

Posted in Credit card Processing, Credit Card Security, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments Tagged with: Amazon, commerce, credit card, e-commerce, Facebook, google, media, mobile, mobile phone, network, payment, payment information, payment services, PayPal, platform, processes, secure, social, transaction

Future of Marketing Lies in Mobile Payments…Why?

Future of Marketing Lies in Mobile Payments…Why?

Marketing and payments might seem like strange bedfellows to the average retailer, but in fact, they are converging rapidly to bring more value to consumers and merchants alike. Here are 10 reasons why the future of marketing is inextricably linked to payments innovation:

1. Cross-Platform Acceptance

Better yet, these targeted offers can be acquired and redeemed through different mediums…online, offline and mobile…and utilized interchangeably. This makes life easier on the consumer and thus makes them more likely to engage with new loyalty and rewards programs. Moreover, as the Internet and mobile solutions continue to merge, the digital “wallets” that many of us use online today (think PayPal) are, logically, moving to our phones. When these payment and marketing applications are accessible from the same device, customers can seamlessly receive pertinent offers and pay for goods at the same time in the same place. Other apps will give consumers the ability to shop in one medium and buy in another, simplifying omni-channel marketing to affect commerce across all channels. This kind of convenience and value is a win for both customer and merchant.

2. Loyalty and Rewards get Simpler

The reality is that it’s much easier to issue and redeem loyalty rewards, gift cards and discounts when they are integrated into the POS experience and don’t require customers or merchants to alter the existing in-store purchase or checkout stream. You can see these simplified applications already in practice at chains like Starbucks, as well as independent merchants that use systems like LevelUp.

3. Merchant adoption

The payment technologies that succeed will be the ones that are ultimately adopted by merchants, which in turn will lead to consumer usage. Key technologies that will likely facilitate widespread adoption of mobile payments…either proactively because merchants want to see what they can offer them, or passively as they upgrade devices…include:

EMV (chip and pin), which will force merchants to update their POS systems, likely catalyzing them to update all points of interaction.

NFC – Cloud Computing – Geofencing – QR Codes and even Basic Bar Codes

4. More Value for Consumers

And for consumers, the convergence of payments and marketing should deliver highly valuable deals, offers, comparisons information and more, ultimately providing drastic improvement of the buying and shopping experience.

5. More Value for Merchants

So what does this value look like? For merchants, the convergence of payments and marketing should bring in new customers, increase sales from existing customers, and provide more customer data. It should also create a more streamlined multi-channel experience so consumers have little barrier to adoption.

6. No Single Technology will Win

These new technologies introduce an interesting question: What should merchants do to prepare for this brave new world where payments and marketing collide? For one, merchants should avoid betting on any one technology. In fact, the POS needs to morph into something a little more complex, becoming instead a POI, where a broad variety of payment types, loyalty programs, coupons and more can be redeemed. Merchants should be in a position to choose what types of payment they want to accept and in what medium, and not be limited to fixed payment tenders.

When the convergence of marketing and payments will happen

The increasing adoption of mobile payments by merchants and consumers, when combined with new POS environments, will jump-start the convergence of marketing and payments. However, we’re still in the early stages.

Mobile commerce technologies are widespread but still working to gain traction from consumers en masse. Additionally, merchants haven’t yet felt the need to upgrade their POS systems to accept mobile payments

However, the October 2015 EMV Liability Shift, a date set by Visa and MasterCard for certain charge-back liabilities to fall to the merchant unless they have upgraded to EMV-capable POS systems, is likely to push merchants to upgrade their systems.

Once merchants begin to upgrade these POS systems, the smart ones will take the opportunity to add more features and functionality to the systems, including the ability to accept payment…and marketing-driven solutions from mobile handsets. That’s when we’ll see the value of two-way communication between merchants and consumers dramatically change the shopping experience and bring payments into the marketing mix.

7. Smartphone Adoption is Speeding Up

Consumers’ mobile phones are already equipped to deliver highly valuable offers, and adoption is increasing at a rapid pace. Smartphones bring with them new app technologies that include not only mobile payments but also loyalty and rewards programs that are designed to drive preference for stores, good and services.

8. Targeted Offers and Single-Use Applications

Of course, these solutions are still in their infancy. Elegant single-use applications, such as mobile wallets and gift cards, will soon grow to provide highly targeted offers that take into account everything from shopping preferences to location, providing incentives as a customer walks the aisle of a store. Just about every player in the payments ecosystem is thinking about these new commerce technologies. The winners will be those that demonstrate clear value for both the merchants and customers.

9. The “POS” is now a “POI”

A point-of-sale (POS) solution used to be a place where goods were purchased and money traded hands. Usually, this took the form of a cash register or credit card machine. Though these still exist, a wave of new value-added marketing services, such as targeted offers, discounts and highly valuable loyalty applications, have led to the transformation of the POS into a point-of-interaction (POI), a place where consumers and merchants meet to exchange value for value.

10. Two-way communication

When embedded in smartphones, new technologies…like near-field communication (NFC), QR codes, geofencing and cloud authentication solutions…allow for two-way communication between the consumer and the POS solution, enabling merchants to deliver coupons and offers directly to customers’ mobile phones through targeted integrated programs.

Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Smartphone Tagged with: bar codes, cloud, device, EMV, handsets, innovation, loyalty, marketing, merchants, mobile, nfc, offline, omni-channel, online, payments, PayPal, phones, POI, point of interaction, POS, qr codes, rewards

Mobile Payments in Africa and Beyond SmartPhones Are the New Banks:

Mobile Payment Bandwagon

Just this month, September 2013, a number of British retailers announced their partnership with smartphone payment application Zapp, expected to launch summer 2014. Long before that, in November 2012, global coffee chain Starbucks launched a mobile payment system using Square Wallet, allowing customers to pay for their coffees with a simple scan of their smartphone. In China, the mobile payment market tripled in size over the last year, with a growing number of retailers jumping aboard the e-payments trend. Clearly, mobile payments are the new face of commerce…both for consumers and, increasingly, within a B2B setting as well. It may not be long until every type of payment…from mortgages and business loans to utilities bills and income tax…is made through mobiles.

Though it’s a trend that’s now spreading across the globe, the rise of mobile payments can be directly traced back to Africa. It’s an example of how unique conditions give rise to innovative solutions, and how those innovations catch on. Here’s a brief look at the rise of mobile payment technology and at the role Africa has played in its success.

Africa Gets There First – this notion of exchanging funds through a mobile phone really took off in Africa. When M-Pesa was launched by Safaricom in Kenya in 2007, it was a simple solution to issues specific to the region. Kenyans who lived far from banks or couldn’t afford banking fees were given the opportunity to send and receive payments through SMS messages. M-Pesa answered these specific problems, but the concept behind the service has proven to have a far broader reach. After achieving success in Kenya, M-Pesa launched in Tanzania in 2008. Despite getting off to a slow start, the mobile payment services now has 5 million Tanzanian subscribers. It has also launched in South Africa, Afghanistan, India and there’s plans to roll it out in Egypt at some point in 2013.

At the heart of M-Pesa’s success has been efficiency and security. Removing the need to travel to a bank…or even the need to log into online banking…has made the process of transferring funds far easier and faster. Eliminating the need to write a cheque, use cash or enter credit card details has made the process far more secure. Increased efficiency and improved security are qualities that everyone…not just those in the developing world…stands to benefit from.

Thus, though today’s technology has adapted and built upon the M-Pesa model, the world still has Africa…Kenya in particular…to thank for starting the mobile payment revolution.

Posted in Financial Services, Mobile Payments, Smartphone Tagged with: banking, broader, credit card, e-payments, efficiency, fees, global, innovations, innovative, messages, mobile, payment, retailers, Security, services, smartphone, sms, solution, travel

With revamped iPhone app Travelocity rethinks smartphone bookings.

With revamped iPhone app Travelocity rethinks smartphone bookings

To accommodate for the more gesture-based features in Apple’s new iOS 7, Travelocity rebuilt its iPhone application from the ground up. The online travel agency’s new app is aimed at moving users through the booking process quicker with more visuals. Travelocity has been streamlining all parts of the trip-planning experience with its mobile apps continuously in the past few years.

“Luckily, we have a great, agile team and some top-notch mobile designers, so we were able to dive into the new design as soon as the beta was released. “We also decided early on to rebuild this version from scratch and really work on making it fast and reliable,” said Blake Clark, director of mobile for Travelocity.    “We find mobile travelers demand speed and sometimes they’re in less-than stellar connection areas, so that was a big one.”

Streamlined design
Tavelocity updated its iPhone app with a design that highly plays up images and visuals. The app’s home screen shows photos of world cities to inspire consumers to take a last-minute trip. The app also leverages the new AirDrop feature of iOS 7 to let consumers securely share their travel information with friends and family members after they book a hotel.

The new app includes a feature that lets consumers scan their credit cards with a built-in camera feature to cut down on the number of steps that it takes consumers to check out. The technology detects the number on a credit card and automatically fills in portions of the checkout page. The app also highlights Travelocity’s mobile-exclusive offers that take into account a user’s location to serve up relevant offers and deals.

Travel on mobile
Travelocity has been building up its mobile strategy for quite some time with different mobile products and ad campaigns. Most recently, the brand designed its Web site around responsive design, which led to a 6 percent increase in iOS bookings and an 8 percent jump for Android reservations after two month.

Travelocity’s tablet booking experience was also named the best this spring in a study from Mobivity.

Travelocity is the latest example of how iOS 7 has shifted the way that marketers develop mobile apps with more gesture- and touch-based features. “It’s a shift of how Apple customers interact with their devices, and as a leader in the travel space, we wanted to make sure we’re reducing the amount of friction travelers have when booking a trip.” “With the iOS 7 launch, now our app and the device look, work and feel the same; it’s seamless.” Mr. Clark said.

“Travelers can easily access the deep selection and great value Travelocity is known for. Travelocity’s goal – to be a traveler’s trusted companion before, during and after the travel experience.”

 

Posted in Credit card Processing, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Near Field Communication, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: agencies, agency, agency's, agent, app, booking, iOS, ios7, Iphone, mobile, smartphone, travel, travelocity

Mobile checkout integrated into transportation ticketing app by Barclay’s Pingit

Mobile checkout integrated into transportation ticketing app by Barclay’s Pingit

Barclay’s Pingit mobile payments service is teaming up with Corethree to bring the financial institution’s mobile checkout to public transportation customers in Britain.

Corethree offers a mobile wallet for transport ticketing in Britain. By including Barclays Pingit in its wallet, Corethree can offer users more flexibility in how they pay for tickets.

“Providing a variety of native payment solutions within the application enhances the customer experience by allowing them the same type of purchasing experience that they currently enjoy from their favorite websites and ecommerce sites.”

“In the U.S. this includes integrating with payment option like PayPal and eventually electronic wallet providers as well.”

Mobile checkout
Pingit was introduced in early 2012, enabling users to make person-to-person payments.

The app’s breadth of services have been expanded several times since to include mobile payments from NFC tags and mobile checkout for Web sites and print ads.

Corethree reports that it is the first business to integrate Barclays Pingit mobile checkout, enabling bus passengers to browse, select, purchase and use bus tickets from their mobile devices.

Over the next 12 months, Corethree and Barclays will roll out their mobile payment services to other transport operators, with the goal of reaching up to 1 million passenger journeys per day.

The service will be available via Android and iPhone devices on any mobile network.

Mobile payments entry
Public transportation organizations around the world are embracing mobile ticketing to make it easy for riders to purchase and use tickets from their smartphones. Enabling users to purchase transit tickets anywhere at any time that can be used. Last year, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority rolled out a new mobile ticketing service, giving commuters a way to purchase and display rail tickets on their smartphones.

“Transit is an integral part of consumers’ daily lives, and as such providing consumers with a secure way to pay with their phone and not have to carry cash or exact change is a great starting point for people to get comfortable using mobile payments.”

“Mobile ticketing is a great way to introduce customers to making payments from their mobile device.”

Posted in Credit card Processing, Digital Wallet Privacy, e-commerce & m-commerce, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments, Mobile Point of Sale, Travel Agency Agents Tagged with: checkout, devices, electronic wallet, integrating, Iphone, mobile, nfc, payment, payments service, smartphone, Tags, ticket, ticketing, tickets, transportation, travel

Convergence of mobile banking, ATM channels is a given

Convergence of mobile banking, ATM channels is a given

 Auriga, Diebold, NCR and Wincor Nixdorf International have all demonstrated their mobile phone-based cardless cash withdrawal solutions. It is interesting to note that all of these vendors have embraced the QR code technology…a clear endorsement for a technology that is secure, low-cost, and readily available.

It doesn’t take a deep examination to realize that the mobile banking and ATM channels are heading toward convergence,  and when the fusion of these dominant channels occurs, the consumer should be at the heart of it.

Auriga has advanced this idea by combining cardless ATM withdrawals with its mobile payments solution. The company has also added an option to make payments using a bank account rather than a card to support those consumers who do not embrace, or do not qualify for, traditional bank cards.

Not surprisingly, many large retailers are watching these developments with keen interest, ever mindful of the significant interchange fees they pay for accepting card based payments.

Although cardless ATM withdrawals and mobile payments are exciting, they are only the start of a deeper, multi-channel convergence. The real channel convergence is not happening at the endpoint devices, it is happening internally within the banks and processors, where modern, flexible technologies are being increasingly deployed to augment or replace yesterday’s legacy infrastructure.

The abilities to centralize business services to save costs, to easily deploy services over any channel for greater consumer choice and to achieve faster times to market for new services are no longer “nice to have” luxuries — they are now “must have” attributes to stay in the game.

It is little wonder that leading banks are shifting their IT investments away from solutions that perpetuate a fragmented services approach in favor of true multichannel systems that facilitate the ultimate consumer experience.

“Channel convergence does not mean that the ATM or the mobile device is at the center, it means the consumer is at the center.”

Once the consumer is placed at the center of your self-service strategy, you quickly realize it is their needs and preferences that should rightfully guide your approach.

The real secret is to allow consumers to interact with their bank the way they want to…with as few restrictions as possible. There is no magic silver bullet that will suit every consumer’s needs.

Banks can create deeper and more enduring relationships with their customers by implementing personalization profiles that allow consumers to tailor their own service experience.

MySpend solution is an excellent illustration of how banks and consumers can better cooperate to combat fraud, consumers can define their own use rules to significantly improve the accuracy of any fraud detection system. For example, card transactions from specific countries can be readily declined if a consumer knows that he or she will not be there, it also provides consumers with an instant notification of their transactions and the means for them to immediately flag any transaction they did not perform.

The use of consumer-specific profiles can be easily extended beyond the anti-fraud focus of MySpend solution. For example, Auriga’s Internet banking solution allows consumers to choose their own login security options from the bank-approved list, including an option for phone-based authentication using QR codes. More broadly, consumer-configured use profiles can improve the entire consumer experience, regardless of the chosen service channel.

Auriga’s ATM solution includes an intelligent menu that automatically tracks the consumer’s transactions and presents the most frequently used transactions on conveniently accessed menu buttons.

“The technology already exists to allow (consumers) to customize their own ATM menu through their mobile or Internet banking channel.” “It is only a matter of time to see the widespread adoption of this advanced customer-centric convenience.”

Ultimately, the business challenges are not about technology; they are about learning how to use the technology to promote growth and identify new competitive advantages. A recent ATM Marketplace report said that “the bank of the future will be a multichannel, multifunction and multi-device environment.” Given the current evidence, it seems this is a sentiment everyone can agree with.

Posted in Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments Tagged with: banking atm, banks, card based payments, convergence, diebold, interchange fees, mobile banking, Mobile Payments, mobile phone, QR code, secure, technology

U.S. Bank integrates to simplify mobile money transfers with Western Union

U.S. Bank integrates to simplify mobile money transfers with Western Union

U.S. Bank has offered Western Union Money Transfer services since 2009, but now customers can do so via mobile. According to U.S. Bank, it is the first bank in the United States to integrate the Western Union Money Transfer services into its mobile app.

U.S. Bank is collaborating with Western Union to let U.S. Bank customers use the Western Union Money Transfer services via the U.S. Bank mobile application. “Adding Western Union enhances overall digital money movement strategy.”

“Primary goal is to make it easier for customers to send money on any device to anyone across the country or around the world.” Giving customers the most convenient banking experience by delivering and allowing customers to bank anywhere and anytime they want.

Money transfer

In order to qualify for the new service, customers must have been a customer of U.S. Bank for at least a year and have a registered mobile phone and eligible deposit account. Western Union Money Transfer services let consumers conveniently pay other consumers via mobile or desktop.

Eligible U.S. Bank mobile banking customers will now see the Western Union logo in the person-to-person money transfer options. Online banking customers will see Western Union as a funds transfer option.

U.S. Bank decided to offer the new service to make moving money as convenient as possible for its customers. Customers will be able to send money around the world from the comfort of their own home.

When consumers receive a payment through the Western Union services, they can be paid in cash and use it immediately.

Mobile banking

U.S. Bank has rolled out a number of mobile initiatives in the past few years.

In July, U.S. Bank integrated with the Square digital wallet, enabling users to fund payments made via the mobile application from their bank account.

Earlier this year, U.S. Bank even offered customers the ability to pay via NFC by providing a customized U.S. Bank Go Mobile iPhone case equipped with NFC technology.

The bank also rolled out mobile photo bill pay services last year to let customers pay their bills by simply snapping a picture of the document using the camera on a smartphone or tablet.

“As device ubiquity grows, as people become more comfortable using their phones for all their banking activities, a lot of new ways to leverage a phone’s capabilities to make banking easier for customers, customers expect their bank to offer a full rich set of money management and movement capabilities on their phones, tablets and laptops.”

Posted in Digital Wallet Privacy, Electronic Payments, Mobile Payments Tagged with: banking, mobile, money, nfc, payment, transfers, U.S. Bank, US Bank, western union