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RS<br />
comment<br />
Mobile payments uptake<br />
has stuttered because<br />
of technology and user<br />
perception. But with the<br />
right innovation, these<br />
issues can be laid to rest.<br />
Here are five trends I<br />
predict this year...<br />
As CTO, Damon Petta oversees all aspects<br />
of the organisation’s technology. His<br />
responsibilities include providing vision and<br />
direction for Skrill’s global platform development<br />
teams, mobile/web experience,<br />
and the core infrastructure.<br />
06 RS February - March 2013<br />
Mobile trends<br />
Damon Petta, CTO of Skrill, believes 2013 will be the breakthrough<br />
year for mobile payments<br />
As smartphone ownership in the UK<br />
has just tipped over the 50 per cent<br />
mark, and is predicted to see continued<br />
rapid growth, I believe 2013 will (finally) be<br />
the breakthrough year for mobile payments.<br />
However, the path is still beset with obstacles<br />
and unresolved questions. We have already seen<br />
uptake stutter because of technology and user<br />
perception. But with the right innovation, these<br />
issues can be laid to rest. Here are five trends<br />
I think we’ll see this year that point to a bright<br />
future for mobile payments.<br />
There are many organisations taking<br />
action to encourage customers to carry out<br />
electronic payments away from the internet<br />
and in physical locations, with various start-ups<br />
currently working within the low and middle<br />
end of the market such as Square and iZettle.<br />
We have already witnessed payment provider<br />
Elavon embarking on a slightly different route<br />
to market by pushing itsdevice throughbanking<br />
channels rather than card providers.<br />
However, it’s more likely that a big tech<br />
player will crack the mass market – the likes<br />
of Apple or a Google – rather than a payment<br />
start-up or one of the mobile networks. The<br />
huge market share in handsets that these<br />
companies haveis an essential requirement to<br />
reach the tipping point of mass adoption. There<br />
aresolutions such as Apple’s Passbook and<br />
Google Wallet already available for consumers,<br />
so this year it could wellbe a case of how these<br />
solutions reach points of sale. This is likely<br />
to involve a partnership venture, but mass<br />
infrastructure will be vital.<br />
Regardless of who enables it, the big<br />
challenge is how the gap between bricks and<br />
mortar and your mobile device is closed.<br />
Looking back to the launch of the Apple<br />
iPhone 5 last year, many have said that if the<br />
handset had been shipped with near field<br />
communication (NFC) then perhaps that would<br />
have given the technology the push it needed<br />
to bridge this gap. But ignoring the whys and<br />
wherefores of the move by Apple, it suggests<br />
that the logical solution to mobile payments<br />
being usable at real locations is not going to be<br />
hardware-related, due to this fragmentation of<br />
the handset market.<br />
It therefore makes more sense to look to<br />
software solutions. With technology like 3D bar<br />
codes, the potential user base is much broader<br />
than the owners of the handful of devices that<br />
are going to carry NFC technology. If this is to<br />
be integrated with apps and PoS technology, we<br />
may start to see a roll-out occur. A huge trend<br />
I also expect to take force is mobile loyalty<br />
schemes, involving the collection of reward<br />
points through mobile apps. Retailers will still<br />
require some element of hardware in-store to<br />
issue points, not to mention integration with<br />
any legacy back-end systems. As a result, this is<br />
again likely to require a big player with existing<br />
technology to push it through, like one of the<br />
networks – Vodafone orTelefonica. The other<br />
good news is that, like mobile payments, the<br />
use of this type of loyalty scheme will mean<br />
fewer cards in your wallet.<br />
This year I predict an increase in payment<br />
solution providers implementing ‘agile software<br />
development’, the rapid delivery of high quality<br />
software and a specific business approach that<br />
aligns development with customer needs and<br />
goals. It means using newer web languages to<br />
build light, easily adaptable payments solutions<br />
that fit easily into retailers’ systems and can be<br />
changed to suit their customer’s needs.<br />
One in three people in the UK already use the<br />
High Street to window-shop. I expect 2013 to<br />
see this figure accelerate as shoppers use their<br />
mobiles to locate products and compare prices.<br />
However, I believe we’ll witness a vast amount<br />
of consumers utilising mobiles to carry out<br />
transactions, seeing the current figure of seven<br />
per cent grow above 10 per cent. As people<br />
look to remove cash and card transactions<br />
we should expect to see them replaced with<br />
online and mobile payments, for added speed<br />
and convenience.There’s a huge opportunity<br />
here for retailers to bring offline and online<br />
together when it comes to payment. With an<br />
e-commerce strategy that’s ready for mobile<br />
and the right kind of signage in-store, retailers<br />
can really take advantage of show-rooming.
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