Retailers Getting More Behind Mobile Payments

If it seems like more places will take your mobile payments platform of choice—or have one of their own—then you’re noticing a trend in the making as revealed in a recent Kount study. The Kount 2017 Mobile Payments & Fraud Survey shows that 70 percent of merchants responding supported at least three separate mobile payments options, and that’s not all.

What’s more, merchants have on average doubled mobile payment options, and not just for in-store purchases. Digital purchases are also accepting mobile payment options, and that’s just since 2013, when Kount started running this study.

It’s not just welcome news, though, as the steadily-growing acceptance of mobile payments is bringing some problems along for the ride. Identifying the origination point of mobile payments is a problem for just over a quarter—28 percent—of merchants, which means a greater chance of fraud being a problem. Meanwhile, 37 percent believe that fraud will actually decrease as more people adopt mobile wallets.

A majority of users consider Apple the safest, identifying Apple devices as producing “safe” mobile purchases 61 percent of the time. Sixty percent believe that there’s a greater risk of fraud coming from mobile browsers than from mobile apps, and 68 percent haven’t actually made changes to fraud prevention plans.

Kount’s vice president of marketing, Don Bush, noted “…card-not-present fraud rates will continue to grow alongside rising online and mobile commerce so it’s important that merchants not become complacent in their security efforts, but rather research specific tools, like comprehensive fraud platforms, that can best protect their business without any negative impact to the customer experience.”

Bush’s assessment is quite right; merchants and mobile payments users alike must be vigilant in matters of fraud, much in the same way that they would have to be in the event of a credit card being used. It’s a comparatively similar platform, and one that requires just as much protection as any other. We love the convenience of mobile payments, but the price of this convenience is vigilance.

It’s welcome to see, however, that mobile payments are reaching the level they are. We have a lot of room to grow in this market, and mobile payments should continue to be a valuable part of the market in years to come.