When it comes to retail, even when its mobile retail, it’s still all about location, location, location.
Business software vendor SAP AG released its annual mobility survey this week, aimed at addressing top issues facing mobile commerce service providers. This year’s survey focused on the retail industry, and found that 53 per cent of industry leaders believed a better customer retail experience is necessary for mobile payments to be successful and effective.
And what’s the “secret sauce” for creating a better mobile retail experience? According to respondents, it includes location-based point-of-sale offerings, point-of-sale services such as near field communication (NFC), and facilitating universal acceptance of mobile payments. Also mentioned, although less popular, were targeted offers based on consumer preferences and shopping history, and integration with mass transit.
“We’re seeing a maturing of the mobile payments market, as we move from a service that is driven by person-to-person payments to one that must tackle the challenges of the retail environment,” said Diarmuid Mallon, lead for global mobile marketing programs at SAP. “It’s clear from our survey that in addition to improving the payment experience, mobile wallet apps need to support a multitude of services such as loyalty and couponing.”
When asked who they saw leading the way in the future with mobile payment offerings, banks led the way, followed closely by online payment schemes, such as PayPal, Apple iTunes or Amazon Payments, and credit cards or a consortium of operators.
On the mobile wallet front, only 28 per cent believed new ticketing and coupon services such as Apple Passbook, Google Now and the Samsung wallet app could become an alternative to true mobile wallets, and 38 per cent believed the lack of consumer awareness and too much confusion around the offerings were holding back mobile wallet services.