Mercator Report Talks Mobile Payments and Customer Experience
With mobile payments an increasingly large part of people’s everyday lives, it’s worth looking at this market a little more closely to see what insights can be derived therein. A new report from Mercator Advisory Group offers up some of that insight by telling us what connections are being drawn between how customers pay for their goods and services and the overall effect on customer experience.
One point of note from the report was that, though the overall user base was still somewhat lacking, there was a growing willingness to carry out payments via a voice interface. Three out of four were already conducting transactions in both straight online and mobile commerce settings. Sixty-three percent use voice interface for bill paying, and 55 percent for peer-to-peer (P2P) cash transactions.
The era of “Siri, pay the man” isn’t too far off, apparently.
It didn’t stop there, either; the report found that customers were actually quite concerned about payment choice in stores, including the ability to use the original mobile payments system, cash. We’ve seen this theme echoed throughout much of the world, as customers want cash to at least be an option. Customers also actively choose payment methods based on what merchant they’re dealing with at the time, factoring in safety issues and ease of use.
Perhaps best of all, the study found that the use of in-store ATMs and prepaid gift cards were actually good for stores, as at least some customers actually spent more having such tools on hand.
There’s a lot more than that contained in this report, but suffice it to say that the way in which customers pay isn’t just defined by one set of circumstances. Customers like having options, and will migrate to stores and venues that allow for multiple options. It’s a lesson that every “cashless society” in the making needs to note, and one that individual stores should pay attention to as well.
The more options stores can offer customers—whether it’s on shelves or at the checkout—the better off they all are going forward. Those who forget this notion are likely to end up suffering at its hands, and this suffering can be avoided by just remembering that the more options a customer has, the better.