from the Atlanta Fed
— this post authored by David Lott
In our 2015 year-end retrospective post, we commented on the slow pace of adoption of mobile payments despite the introduction of several major mobile wallets. While some consumer research continues to point to widespread consumer usage of mobile wallets in the coming years, we have seen similar projections from past research fail to materialize.
So what have been the major barriers to adopting mobile wallets? And for those who have adopted them, what functions are the most important? As I have noted before, I am a firm believer in former Intel CEO Andrew Grove’s 10X rule: a new technology experience must be at least 10 times better than the previous method to achieve widespread consumer adoption and usage. A number of different elements – speed, cost, convenience, personalized experience, ease of use, and so on – can all contribute to achieve that 10X factor. Another critical element is the consumer’s trust in the security of the wallet to ensure that payment credentials and transaction information will not be compromised in some way. The market research and strategy firm Chadwick Martin Bailey (CMB) conducted mobile wallet research in March – April 2015 on a nationally representative sample of smartphone owners and specifically asked mobile wallet nonusers what were their particular security concerns. As the chart shows, identity theft and the interception of personal information during the transaction were the top two reasons given.
The tokenization of payment credentials goes a long way to providing a higher level of security, but a major educational effort is required to relay this knowledge to consumers to increase their level of confidence. The CMB study found that 58 percent of nonusers would be somewhat or extremely likely to use a wallet if tokenization of their payment account information were performed.
But is it enough to convince consumers that mobile payments are more secure to significantly speed up adoption and usage? Mobile wallet proponents have been saying for years that the mobile wallet must deliver more than just a payment function, that it should include incorporate loyalty, couponing, identification, or other functions.
So if the desired end state is known, why is it taking so long for the mobile wallet providers to achieve that winning solution? The retailer consortium MCX is going into its fourth year of development and has just recently begun a pilot program of its CurrentC wallet in the Columbus, Ohio, market. Two of MCX’s owners and major U.S. retailers, Walmart and Target, have announced in the last couple of months their plans to develop and operate their own mobile wallet. While these companies still profess their support of the MCX program, have they concluded that a common mobile wallet solution among competing retailers doesn’t meet all their specific needs? Or is it a desire to offer their customers a wider choice of shopping experience options and differentiate their experience? Or is it another reason altogether? Only time will tell.
So do you believe that 2016 will be the year of the mobile wallet? Let us know what you think.
Source
http://takeonpayments.frbatlanta.org/2016/01/mobile-wallets-is-this-the-year.html
About the Author
By David Lott, a payments risk expert in the Retail Payments Risk Forum at the Atlanta Fed
