US News | LocknCharge
If you’ve gone to a Starbucks lately, chances are you’ve used their version of a mobile wallet. One of the first retailers to do so, Starbucks got people started on using their mobile phones to pay for goods in 2010–and it worked. While it’s looking like the coffee giant will be at the top of the mobile payment game for at least a few more years (see graphic from www.eMarketer.com below), this generation has gotten used to pulling out their phones for many in-store purchases.
Second to Starbucks is Apple Pay, which onboarded 19.9 million mobile payment users in 2017. In fact, a recent survey shows that 10% of young adult Americans have used Apple Pay in-store. For a group of approximately 75.4 million, that’s a lot of opportunities for retailers to accept more payments.
Even Fitbit has gotten into the mobile payment game. With the recent unveiling of the Fitbit Pay™ system, it’s easy to predict how many more retail stores will start offering a mobile wallet option. It also seems to be relatively easy for even mom-and-pop stores to accept mobile payments, with new card readers like Square and Shopify. Mobile payments are clearly easier than carrying cash, and they save valuable seconds so customers don’t need to wait for their credit card chip to clear.
But it’s not just consumers that benefit from mobile tech. Retailers are increasingly using devices like iPads for checkout, instead of the traditional cash-register system. Not only does this save store-owners time, it allows consumers to send receipts to their cell phones, among other benefits. Plus, employees who are already familiar with Apple-based products find that iPads are more intuitive and easier to train on than standard registers. Employees can be more mobile, checking out customers anywhere in the store, which ultimately increases customer satisfaction, as it did when Home Depot implemented them in stores across the nation.
What do you think? Are we headed to a complete cash and cardless society? Are you on board for it?
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