Mobile Payments have not seen mass consumer adoption. The issue is that technology advances have come before solving consumer pain points. The deck describes the missteps and potential solution to drive adoption.

1. Why mobile payments aren’t
working and how to fix it
Presented by Agile Payments

2. Everybody’s Doing It
If you are an Old School fan ( and really who isn’t?) then you know the scene I am
talking about: Will Farrell naked, and standing in the middle of the street saying to his
wife “Everybody’s doing it”

3. No One Is Winning
That seems to me how mobile payments space is working. Drunk on the high of
providing THE solution that will drive mass adoption (and create a massive
recurring revenue stream), anyone and everyone seem eager to put forth the next
big thing.
The frothy venture capital scene is certainly an enabler. Hundreds of millions of
dollars have been poured into mobile payment investments. If projected
commerce estimates are even close to accurate, by 2017 an estimated seven
hundred billion dollars will be transacted via mobile platforms. (according to
Statista.com)
You can certainly see why there is so much interest and money involved.
ApplePay, SamsungPay, GooglePay, PayPal and more are all vying for their share.
But who will emerge as the dominant provider? No one knows, but one thing
seems clear : No one is winning

4. Technology
The technology (a primer ) and distribution
channels seem to be the primary
considerations for all players. The motivating
questions seem to be: “What can our
technology do to be safer, faster, more
compliant or cooler” or “What banks or
retailers can we partner with to create the
largest distribution channel?”
It’s kind of Field of Dreams – “If you build it
they will come.” “Let’s get our mobile
payments solution out there because it’s
going to be a big deal.”

5. What’s In It For Me?
What pain point does using a
mobile device for payments solve
for the average consumer?
Think about the average person
in line at their grocery store. A
woman almost always carries a
purse and a man a wallet. The
vast majority of people carry their
license and ID in some way.
Producing a credit card or cash is
not a burden nor does it add any
significant time to that check out
process.

6. • If the mobile device also stored a “usable” license this might make
a difference to many [me included]. Iowa is a state moving towards
accepting an iPhone or Android device license.
• If my phone could securely replace all the
data pieces someone typically carries around
then not carrying a wallet/purse would
certainly be more likely.
• Apple and Google are very smart-why not work
with government DOT agencies to make this happen
(and maybe they are)?
• Yet you still have a large population that would not see
enough benefit to change behaviors. So what’s another significant
pain point?

7. A single interface to see all your spending and
display dashboard reports would certainly appeal to
consumers. Look at Mint and the many other
personal finance tools to keep track of spending.
Creating an easy to use interface that breaks down
all purchases [think tax time] would be very
attractive. There would be partnership
opportunities between the mobile payment app
providers and financial reporting tool applications.
Think about big data opportunities. The Apples and
Googles of the world know exactly when and where
you spend your money, wouldn’t Target pay a lot of
money to know a great deal about their shoppers
and habits? Big data with spending habits create
massive revenue opportunities.

8. Other Applications
How about tying together family members, budgeting
controls and use limits for children? Imagine mom and
dad are admin users on an account that also has their
children attached, two in college and one in high
school. Mom and dad would ideally be able to set
monthly or weekly spending limits, and better yet, be
able to control what kind of establishments their
children can make purchases. Real-time notifications
could be enabled, spending histories charted, transfers
made in real-time, and the list could go on.
Loyalty program providers have seen the same kind of
adoption rate issues that plague the mobile payment
space. Point of sale systems are often disparate and
each presents it’s own unique challenges to loyalty
programs. It also does not seem that any loyalty
program has mass adoption via app download.
Consumers don’t want to deal with multiple loyalty
apps or programs.

9. Payment Plus Loyalty
If a phone payment app has an easy to understand, and easy to redeem loyalty
component offering real value to consumers, those programs can drive both
usage and adoption. Here is where retail distribution channels really pays off. The
retailer gains data access
into their customer buying behavior
never seen before. Actionable data
that drives marketing, inventory,
communication etc. decisions provides
tremendous ROI on promoting the
payment app. I can envision stores
running specials for those using the
payment app. The fear of missing out
is also a behavioral motivator.
By driving adoption the stores
gain consumer insights.

10. Low Hanging Fruit
The mobile payment space should be doing the same thing. Who benefits the most
from swiping their phone? People who see paying cash or using credit cards as time
consuming or who are in a hurry.
Someone in a taxi [non Uber], subway, bus. Fast food places, the movies, restaurants
or any place with lines [Disney] would allow you to walk up, show your phone and
boom you are done. By specifically targeting areas where the speed of the payment
has a benefit to the consumer you gain adoption. When someone sees the guy in front
of them use the app and speed through, they start looking for that convenience.
Push marketing is very, very difficult when the target does not see any real need for
the solution. Pull marketing via pain point alleviation or envy that someone walked
through the line in 2 seconds brings mobile payments into the consumer’s world.

11. Convenience > awareness > adoption
Once you have a user base that has
seen benefits you are on your way to
a viable audience that can then be
leveraged to promote the benefits to
their friends and families.

12. So Who Wins?
I have no idea which solution
but until technology takes a back
seat to serving the consumers’
needs while providing real value,
convenience and solutions I don’t
see a victor.
The consumer must win first.