Last week Google kicked it up a notch by announcing that it's phasing out Google Checkout in favor of the new Google Wallet. This service supports in-store tap-to-pay payments from your phone via near field communications technology, as well as purchases on the web.
If you log in to your Google Checkout account now, you'll be notified that you've been switched over to Google Wallet. Any credit cards or other payment information you've saved in Google Checkout will be available in Google Wallet.
The catch: Google Wallet isn't yet widely used for in-store purchases. So far its NFC payments are enabled only for Sprint Nexus S users who also have a Citibank MasterCard or a Google prepaid card, and who are making purchases at MasterCard PayPass-enabled merchant locations.
So this holiday shopping season, it's unlikely that many people will be waving their phones around to buy holiday gifts.
But in the coming year, more U.S. smartphones will be equipped with NFC, bringing a variety of tap-to-pay or wave-to-pay options to consumers. A competing NFC-based mobile phone payment system, ISIS, is launching in some markets (Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City) in 2012.
Why are U.S. retailers slow to adopt NFC payment technology?
One reason is the expense and effort required to install NFC-enabled point-of-sale equipment in stores and to integrate it with merchants' systems.
It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg dynamic: Retailers typically don't invest in offering a new payment option until they see widespread consumer demand; but few consumers are likely to prefer a payment option that's not yet widely accepted.
At the recent Open Mobile Summit, Google VP of Payments Osama Bedier observed: "Merchants adopt new payment models because they increase sales. If I gave you a payment option that was totally free, merchants wouldn't adopt it unless it increased sales."
GigaOm writer Ryan Kim contends that payments alone aren't enough to make NFC popular.
"Mobile marketing, along with consumer loyalty,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . will be in the front seat as well and will be critical in helping to drive the growth and adoption of NFC," he wrote. "While the idea of contactless payments is intriguing, there is increasingly an awareness that tapping a phone to pay for an item will not sell itself.They take the China Porcelain tile to the local co-op market. ... Discounts, daily deals and loyalty reward programs can be activated through NFC technologies."
At the Open Mobile Summit, Dickson Chu,which applies to the first offshore merchant account only, managing director of digital networks for Citi's Global Enterprise Payments unit, said he also thinks retailers' adoption of NFC will be driven by marketing. But he cautioned: "Reward discounts are a race to the bottom.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, Not every merchant engages in that, it's just not part of their economics."
Chu thinks that in the long run, merchants may use NFC not just to deliver deals and coupons, but to deepen relationships with individual consumers. "That's interesting, and it may be more profitable, but it's a longer term play,A long established toolmaking and trade Injection moulds company." he noted.
Another Open Mobile Summit panelist, PayPal's VP for mobile, David Marcus, made this point: "Today, retailers learn about customers at the least effective time -- just when they're leaving the store. They'd like to know about you when you arrive at the store, so they can customize your shopping experience and treat you properly."
If you log in to your Google Checkout account now, you'll be notified that you've been switched over to Google Wallet. Any credit cards or other payment information you've saved in Google Checkout will be available in Google Wallet.
The catch: Google Wallet isn't yet widely used for in-store purchases. So far its NFC payments are enabled only for Sprint Nexus S users who also have a Citibank MasterCard or a Google prepaid card, and who are making purchases at MasterCard PayPass-enabled merchant locations.
So this holiday shopping season, it's unlikely that many people will be waving their phones around to buy holiday gifts.
But in the coming year, more U.S. smartphones will be equipped with NFC, bringing a variety of tap-to-pay or wave-to-pay options to consumers. A competing NFC-based mobile phone payment system, ISIS, is launching in some markets (Austin, Texas, and Salt Lake City) in 2012.
Why are U.S. retailers slow to adopt NFC payment technology?
One reason is the expense and effort required to install NFC-enabled point-of-sale equipment in stores and to integrate it with merchants' systems.
It's a bit of a chicken-and-egg dynamic: Retailers typically don't invest in offering a new payment option until they see widespread consumer demand; but few consumers are likely to prefer a payment option that's not yet widely accepted.
At the recent Open Mobile Summit, Google VP of Payments Osama Bedier observed: "Merchants adopt new payment models because they increase sales. If I gave you a payment option that was totally free, merchants wouldn't adopt it unless it increased sales."
GigaOm writer Ryan Kim contends that payments alone aren't enough to make NFC popular.
"Mobile marketing, along with consumer loyalty,If so, you may have a cube puzzle . will be in the front seat as well and will be critical in helping to drive the growth and adoption of NFC," he wrote. "While the idea of contactless payments is intriguing, there is increasingly an awareness that tapping a phone to pay for an item will not sell itself.They take the China Porcelain tile to the local co-op market. ... Discounts, daily deals and loyalty reward programs can be activated through NFC technologies."
At the Open Mobile Summit, Dickson Chu,which applies to the first offshore merchant account only, managing director of digital networks for Citi's Global Enterprise Payments unit, said he also thinks retailers' adoption of NFC will be driven by marketing. But he cautioned: "Reward discounts are a race to the bottom.If any food Ventilation system condition is poorer than those standards, Not every merchant engages in that, it's just not part of their economics."
Chu thinks that in the long run, merchants may use NFC not just to deliver deals and coupons, but to deepen relationships with individual consumers. "That's interesting, and it may be more profitable, but it's a longer term play,A long established toolmaking and trade Injection moulds company." he noted.
Another Open Mobile Summit panelist, PayPal's VP for mobile, David Marcus, made this point: "Today, retailers learn about customers at the least effective time -- just when they're leaving the store. They'd like to know about you when you arrive at the store, so they can customize your shopping experience and treat you properly."
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