The Future of Mobile Payments

A while back, we looked into Google’s new form of mobile payments — paying with your face. Meanwhile, big organizations like Visa and MasterCard have been working to enhance the way we pay with every day objects:

• Refrigerator — Your fridge could realize you’re out of the weekly staples and place your grocery order for you.
• Car — With beacon technology placed in both your vehicle and the gas pump, your vehicle knows which pump you’re parked at & can pay for the gas you just pumped into your car.
• Shirt/Sleeve: A sensor could be placed in your sleeve/clothing and pay for your coffee after a morning run.

The Barriers to Mobile Payments

One of the biggest barriers to mobile payment adoption are security concerns from consumers. How will we know that our information is safe? That our personal information or financial numbers won’t be at risk by using a mobile payment? Consumers don’t want to have to think about what encrypted means, how many hours of research will go into the mobile payment technology of their choice and what it means for the security of their information.

The second barrier we’ve found is adoption. Getting people to adopt a new technology like this when we’re so used to making payments with our wallet and our credit cards is difficult. In 2015, only 5% of devices that were enabled with NFC (Near Field Communication) used it in a retail setting. So, what will it take for consumers to move from traditional forms of payment to mobile payments? Would it be knowing that your information and bank numbers are secure? Would it be knowing that you could use your shirt to make purchases?

The Future of Mobile Payments is an App

There’s one simple solution to these questions — one specific app that helps consumers figure out mobile payments. Currently, there is no single app for consumers to use that will help manage, control and understand mobile payments. Each time a consumer wants to make a mobile payment at Starbucks, Walmart, etc., they have to download a separate app and then try to remember the password to the app or if they have the app before they can use it to pay.

Even with Apple Pay, you have to use the Apple Pay mobile app or the Google Wallet app for Android devices. Manufacturers, developers and designers need to come together to develop one app or solution for consumers that allows us to make swift and secure mobile payments while taking away all of the guesswork from how mobile payments work, how it should be used and why it should be used instead of a method of payment that has worked for, well, forever.

The Brands Behind These Ideas

• Samsung — building technology to replenish groceries when you’ve run out of a staple.
• Honda — building mobile payment into vehicles.
• WISeKey — building mobile payment technology into traditional watches.
• MasterCard + Coin — developing mobile technology for Mastercard customers.

We’d love to hear from you — what are your thoughts about mobile payments? Do you use mobile payments? What have your experiences been? Comment below!

Want more? Watch as Sarah and Ryan discuss mobile payments:

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Authored by Sarah Rockholt.