mobile

MPD CEO Karen Webster: Why Mobile Payments Have Yet to Take Off

October 16, 2015         By: Mike Dautner

MPD CEO Karen Webster spoke most recently at the Code/Mobile conference in California, discussing her thoughts on why mobile payments have yet to hit its stride in relation to customer preference.

Webster’s main points revolve around the nothing that there has not been a strong use case for consumers to completely abandon their wallets and rely solely on their mobile device.

In truth, consumer’s care mainly about reaping the benefits of the best possible deal offered. They are less concerned about how they actually pay for purchases.

“The U.S. is embarrassingly behind the rest of the world in mobile payments, despite being the largest card market in the world and despite playing around the mobile payments game for a long time. Our stubbornness with respect to getting on the stick with NFC technology has held back our progress and we are now in the position of playing catch up,” Webster commented in her speech.

“To make matters worse, the payments ecosystem in the U.S. is denying consumers something that they really want. The mobile device is an indispensable part of their lives and using a phone to pay in a store is easier and a feature that they can’t wait to try.”

Webster also spoke about the U.S.’ lagging behind nations like Korea, Japan, China, and the UK. She offered her view on what is needed to disrupt the status quo in regard to the U.S.’ adoption of mobile payments. She admitted that progress is not absent in the U.S., but consumers not fully on board yet.

“When we’ve eliminated friction and made things easier for consumers and merchants to transact — as we have done in-app and in the browser with one click and buy buttons — consumers respond. Because in the end, it is the consumer who will decide how mobile payments happens and by default who in the mobile and payments ecosystem succeeds,” Webster noted.

“Deciding what’s next for mobile payments shouldn’t be based on what others might have done – or as we’ve seen haven’t really delivered yet – but what will delight the consumer, strengthen their relationship with the merchant and drive demonstrable value to both parties.”

It’s seems like the insurgence of popularity regarding mobile payments in the U.S. will have to be a patient waiting game for now.