Mobey Forum Executive Director Maikki Frisk recently interviewed Rambus Payments Director of Product Marketing André Stoorvogel about the future of mobile wallets.
According to Stoorvogel, the convenience factor by itself isn’t enough of an incentive to drive mass adoption of mobile wallets. Put simply, many consumers are already quite satisfied with their contactless cards as they are quick, convenient and familiar.
“This is why we’re seeing digital wallet providers like banks and retailers incentivizing users with offers and other value-added services,” he explained.
“Brick and mortar stores are also working hard to be differentiated in the digital world. Central to this effort is the desire to create a rich buying experience for the customer, one where the physical act of paying becomes less visible.”
As Stoorvogel notes, digital wallets offer a great deal of value to banks and retailers by generating streams of actionable customer data that can be used to develop new services and tailored deals. Moreover, by owning the wallet application and infrastructure, banks and merchants can effectively control security and protect customer data from fraudsters.
“Provisioning costs and transaction fees can [also] be reduced by deploying private label digital cards, along with in-app payments so merchants save money by reducing overall costs including check-outs in their physical stores,” he added.
In addition, says Stoorvogel, moving closer to the consumer is important for both banks and merchants.
“By tapping into the power of their customers’ smartphones and by using technologies like augmented reality, they can make digital shopping more experiential, increase engagement with customers, boost loyalty and generate more revenue on the back of expanded opportunities to up/cross sell,” he elaborated.
Stoorvogel also touched on Rambus’ recently announced Unified Payment Platform, which combines various digital “values” from banks and retailers – allowing consumers to seamlessly pay with credit, points, gift cards and coupons in a single transaction.
“We’re on the road to making the buying experience completely frictionless and invisible. I’d love to walk into a store, pick up what I want and walk right out. If we can move the act of payment into the background, consumers get a smoother process and banks and retailers can reduce costs and increase revenues. Everyone wins. The work that Rambus is doing right now is paving the way for this to become a reality,” he concluded.
Interested in learning more about Rambus’ Unified Payment Platform? You can check out our eBook on the subject below.
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