« How to install GPRS cards on Ingenico i5100 | Main | Why mobile payments didn't happen in until now »

14 December 2010

Why clueless customers are holding mobile payments back

With 66 millions contactless cards by Master Card and tens of millions more by Visa, contactless payments are possible all around the world. Although the technology is well distributed in certain parts of the world, actual transaction volumes have been low.

Two main reasons are responsible for that:

On the consumer side there is a lack of knowledge about the technology. People might have cards equipped with wireless possibilities without knowing what to do with them. It is the responsibility of the manufacturers and card issuers, mainly banks, to educate the customer about the new options on their bank cards.

On the side of the retailers the infrastructure is not always present. Although there are contactless readers in the market, it requires an extra investment. One that does not always weigh up against the gained benefits from adding contactless payments. 
One partial solution is to create cheaper add-ons for existing terminals. These are said to be in the making but are not available yet.

 Got a different opinion? Share it in the comments!

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a0133f217f051970b0134892d141b970c

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Why clueless customers are holding mobile payments back:

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

The comments to this entry are closed.