Mobile payment will only make the big jump once mobile payment is no longer spoken of . This is one of four key factors which might help to push mobile payment.
Patrick Urban, Chief Marketing Officer of MUUME, shows how to add value and service in the mobile payment industry:
Shopping with your smartphone in your hand is fun
The smartphone has become as personal as a wallet. Nevertheless, only very few smartphone users pay mobile. This shows that traditional methods of payment using cash, checking accounts and credit cards are still by far the preferred method.
Would it make a difference at all if a customer pulled out a smartphone with a payment app or a checking / credit card in the store? Yes, but only if it is possible to create additional benefits and services that go beyond pure mobile payment. “Shopping + ordering + paying” should be interlocked into one digital self-service experience.
Creating added value
The majority of consumers would like to be online always and everywhere, because the digital world promises speed and simplicity. Goods ordered online are to be shipped by the dealer quickly, because these were already paid for upon purchase.
The smartphone is increasingly becoming the center of events in this trend. Digital payment is also always playing a role. But this is exactly why it makes sense to not consider digital payment in an isolated manner, but rather to look at the entire process, from browsing and shopping to ordering and payment.
Mobile payment providers should therefore not place pure payment at the forefront of their application, but rather only view it as one component of the entire consumption process. For consumers, paying is a rather necessary evil that is part of shopping. In contrast, the consumer’s positive shopping experience is enhanced by good services and comprehensive product information and presentations directly at the POS.
Payment itself should therefore be felt as little as possible in the purchase process, since it of course has no added value for customers. The digitization of browsing, shopping and ordering and the seamless transition to mobile payment, on the other hand, constitute added value. Just like the linking to loyalty or couponing programs and, in the transition phase, the smooth integration of existing traditional payment methods to digital service.
In this way, the customers can scan the respective bar code of the items at the POS with their smartphones. These are then shown in the virtual shopping cart. The consumer can then get digital information about the product and pay for the items immediately, including the stored loyalty cards. The usual payment process is eliminated and at the same time the shopping experience is enhanced, because your own smartphone is the focal point.
The dealer in turn saves on infrastructure costs. Or the dealer offers the consumer the option to digitally pre-order. The customer chooses the pick-up location in this instance Either the customers use the pick-up service to pick up the item themselves or they can have the product sent to their home. It is important that the dealer brings such services closer to its customers. This creates new service opportunities with added value, including couponing, loyalty, etc.
Mobile payment will make the big jump if four things are done:
1. Mobile payment is no longer spoken of.
2. The entire purchasing process – shopping, ordering and paying – is digitized as one unit. Mobile payment is not marketed as a solution, but rather the comprehensive digital self- service around the purchase.
3. The product data (item descriptions, ingredients, etc.) are professionally prepared and provided to customers on their smartphones.
4. The transition from shopping and ordering to paying occurs seamlessly and digitally on smartphones without this being perceived as a necessary evil.
Once these aspects are ensured, the positive shopping experience of the consumer will be strengthened. The hour of mobile payment will then have come.
Featured image: Pixabay.
