As NFC unfolds and evolves, this complicated ecosystem really needs to rally around the interests of two key parties in the NFCmobile wallet experience.
1) The User (Consumer)
2) The Implementer (RetailerMerchant)
I fear sometimes we fixate too much on the building blocks: the readers, the hardware end-points, the cardpayment networks, etc. Don’t get me wrong, these are all important; however it’s clear that understanding the consumer and merchant perspectives is critical for meaningful adoption.
VeriFone commissioned its first survey to better understand the consumer as NFC and mobile payments begins to cross into mainstream media. You may ask why, or what’s our bias? Do we have some objective to serve some secret need? No. We simply hope that these insights help frame our efforts, your efforts & help identify what really matters.
So what did we find? Our survey confirmed and validated that consumers are excited and ready; but also cautious. They want more from the shopping experience and are ready for value-added services, coupons, loyalty, etc.; they are nearly equally concerned about security and identity theft. We also learned, as one might expect, younger consumers are more willing to not only innovate and try new experiences, but also are less concerned about security.
In the end, they key message I take away from this survey is that consumers are ready. They are ready for Google Wallet, ISIS wallet, digital Groupons, etc. Adoption will start from the younger generations, could be slightly skewed towards males, then trickle upward to the more risk-adverse generations, as security is validated through usage of early adopters.
Lastly, if you have any questions, we would be open to answering them, or reviewing the results to see if we can data-mine any specific questions you might have. We want to make this information accessible and help make sure we all are hearing the consumer & the merchant.
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Hi Dave, David here. Thanks for these interesting conclusions! I myself am quite excited about mobile payments. I regularly use the Starbucks app – I’m curious, how is NFC different than the Starbucks system?
David, sorry for the long delay. Starbucks uses QR codes, which is a 1-way simple authentication method. NFC is the logical evolution of the QR code, and the natural next step. NFC will allow Starbucks to not only speed up the process, but also allow for a more rich 2-way conversation with the phone vs a single 1-way QR code. Think of it this way: The QR code is a virtual plastic gift-card, while NFC will allow that plus 1,000 of other data-elements to be passed. It’s like super QR code!