Merchants Are Key to Mobile Wallet Success

The saying “If you build it they will come” does not hold true in the world of mobile payments, this according to Denee Carrington, author of the Forrester’s report called “Merchants Will Pick Who Wins The Digital Wallet Wars.”

“Three years into the digital wallet wars, at least one thing has become clear: Merchants will pick who wins and who loses,” Carrington, Senior Analyst of Forrester Research, reported.

According to Carrington, deep pockets and strong brand awareness are, on their own, not enough to propel success in the mobile payment industry – a lesson learned the hard way by Google Wallet, Visa’s V.me and Square Wallet.

A significant number of the consumer base that uses the mobile wallet and a significant number of merchants that accept the wallet are the factors that propel success in the world of mobile payments, Carrington pointed out.

In order to win the merchants’ preference and acceptance at checkout, a mobile wallet has to provide an elegant user experience, as well as a good value proposition to merchants such as reducing the operational cost, she added.

In an article published on Forbes.com, the Forrester’s Senior Analyst pointed out that the fate of the soon to be launched Apple mobile wallet will be decided by merchants.

Bloomberg also reported that Apple has plans to turn its next iPhone into a mobile wallet.

The soon to be released new iPhone, Bloomberg reported, will use for the first time a near-field communication chip and will include a safety feature called Touch ID – a fingerprint recognition reader.

It may be the first mobile payments solution to capture the interests of both merchants and consumers.