GEC NEWS WIREWith that smartphone in your hand, your PoSS (point of shopping and point of sale) ison a single device. The era of mWallet has proliferated the popularity and need of next-gen mobile capabilities like NFC and mobile payment apps, which has created a unique marketplace for technology vendors and retailers alike to explore and exploit the mobile technology that is revolutionizing the retail industry and make way for the mobile currency.
Smartphone penetration in countries like UAE is hovering at nearly 75% and broadband penetration expected to hit 100% anytime soon. With this statistics in hand, it is not surprising to see why a big chunk of retailers and billers from the region have deployed a mobile optimized website. According a study published by Global Card Processing, the top 3 global challenges in mobile payment are directly related to the front-end consumer experience; mobile checkouts, biometrics and the cross-platform solutions available in the market. The payment processing arena has shifted significantly of late, driven by demand for more intuitive, efficient, seamless and modern capabilities among retailers.
“One of the major trends in the market has been the birth and rapid coming-of-age within mobile point of sale, as consumers and corporate purchasers alike are showing their willingness and desires to use tablets, smartphones and other gadgets to complete transactions.” Says Marcelle Malhab, Business Development Manager – MEA B2B, LG Electronics Gulf.
Towards end of last year OMA Emirates introduced the ‘Mobile Solutions’ one of the industry’s first audio-jack and Bluetooth based NFC/contactless mobile card acceptance solution which supports Apple Pay, MasterCard contactless and Visa payWave using Ingenico devices. “This development kept in mind acceptance of payment within small merchants. It is a future-proof solution for contactless payment acceptance by providing support for both magnetic stripe, contactless and EMV cards, and is fully compatible with any Mobile Solutions mCommerce platform including the mPOS application, management portals and gateway to instantly accept all of the latest NFC payment methods.”saysNiranjSangal, Group CEO, OMA Emirates – Solution Gulf
Renjan George, Managing Director of DVCOM Technology states that utility and Online Shopping Companies have created their own mobile applications enabling users to make quick payment through the mobile applications conveniently. “We provide OpenSource solutions, which allows its technology partners to build their own solutions on top of it to complement their businesses and revolutionise the mobile payment capabilities.”addsRenjan. 3iInfotech has an inbuilt Application Programme Interface (API) which helps build a bridge between the external vendors and the internal database. “This tool can connect employees to any banks as and when required if the interface is configured correctly. API interacts with the database information of the banks and customers but remains a fully secured platform reducing the safety risk to staff and recipients.”saysMr. Ashish Dass, President -EMEA, 3iInfotech.
According to Global Payments Insights Study, EMEA (39%) and Asia (37%) lead the way when it comes to acceptance of contactless payments, with mobile payment acceptance coming in at 18% on average globally.
Meera Kaul, CEO of Optimus says that the much-hyped mobile wallets, and the mobile POS payment solutions are just some of the ways in which mobile technology is revolutionizing the retail payment landscape. In fact, digital wallets are mere extensions of traditional credit and debit card services, with a reliance on intermediaries to process transactions. “We use the current mobile payment techniques accepted in the region. The Optimus mobile payment solutions go beyond traditional mobile wallets, offering powerful system architecture that is intuitive, responsive, agile, all, without compromising on security. The solution is specifically developed using high-integrity development processes that are typically used for security-critical applications, with enhanced encryption technology, faster real-time payment authorization, transaction monitoring, offering rapid deployment, scalability and interoperability” says Meera.
Software AG is penetrating this aspect of the market through WebMethodsMobile, a highly integrated solution designed to effectively enhance an organization’s payment system.“Our solution also dramatically mobilizes businesses’ SAP solution by strengthening the value chain, mitigating cost, saving time, implementing relevant mobile applications and enabling SAP business suite functionalities and processes in mobiles phones.”says RamiKichli, Vice President, Software AG, Gulf & Levant.
The mobile payment market is estimated to reach $142 billion by 2019, according to Forrester research. For retailers, the convergence of smartphone and the technology surrounding them cannot go unnoticed. Hacking has hindered customer adoption of mobile payments till late but increased innovations in NFC have highly nourished the tokenization facility andapart from that a good combination of other security measures like biometric authentication and other features have rendered mobile payments as more secure than card or cash payment. So, the battle field is open for the retail players—it is time to make the right partnerships in secure solutions and take the mobile payment industry by storm.
