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08/11/2011 -
It's only a matter of time before mobile payment processing becomes a day-to-day reality for consumers and merchants. In the next few years, the number of mobile payment transactions is projected to top hundreds of billions, according to new research from Pyramid. As a result, businesses with merchant accounts must take this emerging technology into consideration."With mobile technology playing a vital role in people's lives, payment vendors must act quickly to capitalize the fact that users are relying on their mobile devices to enhance their shopping experience including price comparison, product research, merchant location and even product purchase," said Pyramid Research in a statement.
The company estimates that by 2015, approximately 3 billion people will have mobile devices that access 3G or 3G+ networks, meaning smartphones and tablet computers will continue to infiltrate the way every day Americans interact, conduct business and make purchases.
"Payment vendors must develop a cohesive understanding of the entire mobile transactional ecosystem, look at key value-chain areas where they can and should participate, and obtain critical knowledge of specific areas of innovation," explained Jose Magana, practice leader for mobile payments and banking at Pyramid.
One of the merchants leading the way in the mobile payment sector is Starbucks, which launched an app in January that allowed customers to pay through their smartphones or tablets. Since unveiling the application, the coffee company has processed roughly 20 million mobile payments, and the number of mobile transactions increases every month, TMCNet reports. More than 9,000 Starbucks locations across the nation have point-of-sale terminals that support mobile payments.
"The number of mobile payment transactions increases every month … we see sequential month-over-month increases in the number of customers that use mobile payment," Adam Brotman, vice president and general manager of digital ventures at Starbucks, told VentureBeat. "Twenty million transactions speaks volumes."
In addition, Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz told the news source that there are currently about 1 million smartphones in the U.S. that support the mobile payments at Starbucks. In order to perform mobile payments, customers must have a Starbucks Card registered to their devices. This prepaid card can then be reloaded when funds run low. To accommodate the growing needs of mobile users, Starbucks is committed to consistently updating and adding more enhancements to the application.
