Tag: Mobile payment

Apple Pay Goes Global With AmEx Partnership

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple is pushing Apple Pay worldwide with a new partnership with American Express, which will bring Apple’s mobile payment solution to consumers in Australia and Canada soon, before expanding to Spain, Hong Kong, and Singapore in 2016. Apple Pay is said to be growing by double digits, according to CEO Tim Cook during Apple’s Q4 earnings call yesterday. Previously, Apple Pay launched in U.K. in mid-July, marking its first entry into international markets.

Market Impact
Since its initial launch over a year ago, Apple Pay has come a long way, gaining growing acceptance at retailers around the U.S. Earlier this month, Starbucks, KFC, and Chili’s became the most recent companies that added support for Apple Pay in their stores nationwide. Now with AmEx’s help, Apple is set to push Apple Pay into more global markets, expanding its scope and capturing more users in the process. For brands that have presence in those aforementioned markets, this presents a good opportunity to target local consumers using Apple Pay’s integration of reward programs.  

 

Source: Re/Code

Event Recap: NJ Tech Meetup #65

Posted on by Ben Hone

On October 20th, the Lab attended the 65th New Jersey Tech Meetup in Hoboken, NJ. As is tradition, the event began with three entrepreneurs introducing their startups, followed by a fireside chat with an industry veteran. This month’s speaker was Micah Rosenbloom, Managing Partner of Founder Collective, an early-stage investor fund.

The first entrepreneur to present was Scott from Thrive Commerce. A major friction point in eCommerce occurs when consumers leave a retailer’s site to search for coupons on third party sites like RetailMeNot. Often times, once someone leaves the site, they do not come back to check out. Purchased on a SaaS model, Thrive Commerce is a deal management platform that enables retailers to publish, track, and offer discounts to their products across their owned properties. With the coupons readily available, the consumer is encouraged to stay focused on checking out once they have decided to purchase. The platform also allows brands to optimize language on their site to efficiently compete with these third parties’ SEO campaigns.

Next to the podium was Lisa, Founder and CEO of Savile Row Society (SRS), to discuss her new app, Savil.me. Savile Row Society is an eCommerce platform for men who are in need of fashion advice. The site and app connect consumers to personal stylists who shop for them. Products are delivered through Postmates. Each user can also curate their own ‘Virtual Closet,’ which is composed of items already in a user’s closet and garments they have purchased through SRS. Users can then leverage SRS’s color matching algorithm to receive outfit suggestions.

The last presenter introduced the audience to Paydunk‘s secure checkout service, which solves an issue even further down the funnel than Thrive Commerce. Rather than shopping cart abandonment, Paydunk is looking to solve checkout abandonment. Too often, online shoppers get confused or spooked by having to enter personal information over and over again on different sites in order to purchase online. Pay dunk allows users to have one secure method of checkout that does not save purchase information. A user is prompted to enter a pin number to confirm purchase, then a push notification is sent to their mobile device as a secondary confirmation. This essentially acts as a virtual debit card.

After the presentations concluded, Micah Rosenbloom took the stage to discuss his career as a founder and a funder. He stressed the importance of leaving no stone unturned because inspiration or opportunity may reveal themselves in unlikely places. He also recommended that everyone frequently take a pomodoro to maintain focus and increase productivity at work.

 

Apple Pay Is Coming To Starbucks And More

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple Pay continues to gain momentum as Apple announced today its planned roll-out in Starbucks, KFC, and Chili’s locations across the country. Apple’s mobile payment solution will be tested in a few select Starbucks outlets later this year, with a nationwide roll-out in 2016. Both KFC and Chili’s will also start supporting it early next year. Given the early success of Starbucks’ own mobile app, which includes features such as a loyalty program and, more recently, mobile ordering, it will be interesting to see how Starbucks will integrate Apple Pay into its existing mobile assets.  

Market Impact
These new partnerships, especially the one with Starbucks, will undoubtedly broaden Apple Pay’s reach and help accelerate the mass adoption of Apple’s mobile payment. For retailers, this means now is the time to start thinking about incorporating your existing reward and loyalty programs into new point of sale systems, in order to give your customers a frictionless shopping experience.

 

Source: Engaget

 

Starbucks Improves In-Store Experience With Nationwide Mobile Ordering

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Starting today, Starbucks is rolling out a new Mobile Order and Pay feature in its branded mobile app. First tested in Portland back in December and now available at more than 7,400 stores nationwide, the new feature allows its customers to preorder and pay for their coffee and food before they arrive at the designated store for pick-ups, therefore eliminating the need to wait in line and vastly improving its in-store customers experience.

What Brands Should Do
By adding this convenient new feature to its already uber-popular app, the Seattle-based coffee shop chain is able to bring significant added value to its customers, while also driving more customers to its loyalty and rewards program. With mobile payment now reportedly counting for more than 20% of its sales, Starbucks leads as a frontrunner in courting today’s mobile-first customers and unifying its physical stores with digital sales channels, which provides a good example for retail and CPG brands to follow.

 

Source: Mashable

Google Officially Started Rolling Out Android Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Google has officially started rolling out its Apple Pay-competitor Android Pay at over one million locations across the US. First announced in May, Android Pay supports NFC-enabled contactless payment, in addition to storing reward cards and gift cards. Just like Apple Pay, it will be integrated as a payment option in some Android apps, including Chipotle, Etsy, and Groupon. Google has also updated its Wallet app to focus on peer-to-peer payment transfers.

What Brands Should Do
Given Android’s over 1 billion active users worldwide, this may be just what Google needs to catch up with Apple in mobile payments. With more and more consumers starting to incorporate their mobile devices into their shopping experience, brands seeking stay ahead of the digital curve need to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.

 

Source: Re/code

Apple Partners With PayAnywhere To Further Expand Apple Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Apple has struck a new partnership with PayAnywhere, a POS solution provider that serves more than 300,000 locations around the United States. As part of the partnership, the latest version of the PayAnywhere card reader will also be sold in all Apple Stores.

What Brands Should Do
This new partnership undoubtedly broadens Apple Pay’s reach, which in turn could only help the mass adoption of Apple’s mobile payment. For brands, especially those in retail, this means now is the time to start incorporating your existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems, offering your customer a frictionless shopping experience. To promote Apple Pay usage, PayAnywhere is also offering merchants $5,000 worth of free Apple Pay transaction processing, something that SMBs and independent merchants could take advantage of.

Source: TechCrunch

Square To Help Retailers And SMBs Adopt New Payment System

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Mobile payment platform and POS device maker Square is looking to speed up adoption rate of the new EMV chip-and-PIN terminals, promising to cover any faulty charges if the business has already pre-ordered its latest card reader, set to ship this fall. While obviously hoping to convert some businesses to Square’s platform in the process, this offer could help some small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs) to have a smooth transition to the new POS terminals.

What Brands Should Do
For security purposes, businesses that are still using the old magnetic swipe-and-sign system are mandated to upgrade to the new chip-and-PIN EMV payment system by October. For retail brands and small business owners that haven’t been aware of this imminent change, now would be time to make the switch, and try out the benefits digital POS terminals can bring, in terms of improved security, convenience, as well as consumer data some of the digital POS platforms can gather.

 

Source: Ars Technica

Samsung Pay Is Here, Supports Magnetic Card Readers

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Yesterday Samsung unveiled its newest phablet offers – the Galaxy Note 5 and S6 Edge+, both of which will come with Samsung’s answer to Apple Pay built in. Similar to its competitors, Samsung Pay allows users to pay at stores with major credit cards by simply tapping their phones at a NFC-enabled card reader and authenticating their identity with a fingerprint scan.

More importantly, however, Samsung Pay can also work with traditional magnetic credit card readers. In addition to the NFC support, it also broadcasts short-range wireless fields that mimic magnetic card swipes. Samsung has planned a beta program in August, and will be rolling it out to Note 5 and S6 Edge+ users in September or October.

What Brands Should Do
As the mobile payment space continues to evolve and diversify, a rapidly increasing number of smartphone users will be adopting it as more options become available. Businesses would be wise to start developing a holistic digital payment strategy to stay ahead of the adoption curve. In addition to its aforementioned compatibility with the vast majority of payment terminals,  Samsung Pay will also support some store credit cards, which means retailers can easily incorporate their rewards and loyalty program into point of sale system.

 

Source: Re/Code

Retailers To Begin Public Tests of CurrentC Mobile Payment System App

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
Almost two years since its inception, the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX), a consortium made up by big-name retailers and restaurants including Wal-Mart, Target, and Darden Restaurants is finally ready to begin the first public tests of CurrentC mobile payment app, which reportedly won’t launch this year.

What Brands Should Do
Because CurrentC took so long to get ready, the initial two years of MCX’s exclusivity deal with its members to block adoption of competitors like Apple Pay is set to expire soon. Indeed, Rite Aid, a member of the consortium, has announced its decision to start accepting Apple Pay and Google Wallet as soon as this weekend. With more and more consumers starting to incorporate their mobile devices into their shopping experience, brands seeking stay ahead of the digital curve need to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.

 

Source: Wall Street Journal

RIte Aid To Start Accepting Mobile Payments Including Apple Pay

Posted on by Lab Team

What Happened
National drugstore chain Rite Aid will start accepting both Apple Pay and Google Wallet this upcoming Saturday in all its 4,600 stores across the country. The company also plans to accept Google’s forthcoming Android Pay, as well as tap-to-pay credit cards.

What Brands Should Do
Despite being a member of the Merchant Customer Exchange (MCX) consortium that backs its own mobile payment system CurrentC which aims to compete with the likes of Apple Pay, Rite Aid has seemingly realized the importance of giving customers the option to use their prefered mobile payment method. Best Buy, also a member of MCX, announced a similar decision earlier this year. Such newfound acceptance among the national retailers will no doubt furher boost the adoption rate of mobile payments. For brands that wish to stay ahead of the digital curve, now would be the time to start developing a digital payment strategy and incorporating existing reward and loyalty programs into point of sale systems.

 

Source: New York Times