Mobile is clearly becoming a new way people shop“. That quotation of
eBay’s CEO John Donahoe’s
points out the relevance of mobile commerce since 2010. During the last
two weeks we recorded a multitude of liaisons between telecommunication
providers and financial services which absolutely emphasize Donahoe’s
point of view – but with regard to one of the currently hottest topics
within digital – Mobile Payment.
Since players within the German market are still concerned with
go-to-market strategies and the assurance of high security levels, the
USA and United Kingdom are a step ahead with pilot programs in selected
retail stores. With the enormous spread of smartphones all over the
world, once more cell phones have become people’s constant companions.
Wouldn’t it be relieving to leave the wallet at home and use the
smartphone instead of buying the newest goodies? That rhetorical
question is reason enough to take a closer look at mobile payment
realizing partnerships.
In May 2006, Google activated a
chorus of murmurs with its registration of the domain
googlemastercard.com.
Everybody was wondering to what extent that tie-up would change the
online and offline payments market. Exactly five years later,
Google Wallet
hits the market – meaning customers with a Mastercard of Citibank are
now able to pay with their Android smartphone Nexus S out of the mobile
network Sprinter at partnering merchants situated in New York and San
Francisco (e.g. Macy’s, Subways and Wallgreens). Just the last sentence
makes obvious that the collaboration’s dash into the mobile payment
future contains a bunch of restraints and immediately draws legal
consequences:
Paypal scents knowledge stealing since its former Manager
Osama Bedier was headhunted by
Google at this year’s beginning.
Abroad, within the United Kingdom, Samsung and Visa as well as Orange and Barclays also use the technology of
Near Field Communication
chips and special cash desk terminals to provide mobile payment
possibilities. First mentioned use the outrageous media presence of 2012
Olympic Games in London to introduce their co-product. While Samsung is
responsible for NFC hardware, it is Visa’s task to develop a
corresponding mobile payment app. With regard to efficient marketing
activities, all athletes will be provided with Samsung’s NFC-enabled
phones and during the games all users will be able to pay with their
smartphones at more than 60,000 locations within Greater London.
Compared to Google’s approach, Samsung and Visa are already planning how
to spread their service globally through different partnerships
.
Indeed, Barclays and Orange just launched their
Quick Tap
contactless payment service at their bestselling handset (Samsung Tocco
Lite) with which users are able to purchase low-value items (up to £15)
in more than 50,000 shops throughout the UK. Choosing the low-priced
headset for £60 is an interesting part of that collaboration since the
majority of mobile payment services has been introduced for the most
innovative smartphone series. But in this case sales numbers were more
decisive.
These cases illustrate different approaches but all prove the
importance of marketing partnerships regarding market entrance and
correlated risk-sharing. As the infrastructure of Near Field
Communication is still in the early stages of development, partnerships
between the different enablers of mobile payment are the best way to
entry the market, to observe product acceptation and to adjust deficits
with a manageable extent of risks. Since product acceptation is the most
critical point, the mentioned partnerships act jointly to address
concerns about data protection and security.
Consequently, that kind of partnership is worthwhile for the
enterprises, but until now customers only benefit from that service if
they have the corresponding mobile carrier, handset, bank and retail
store. The question arises, whether the installed technologies will soon
fit to every brand, so users will be able to shop via mobile payment
without any restraints – then mobile really changes our way to shop!
