As someone that is very involved in the payments industry, attends conferences, reads the industry publications and generally interested in all things payment related, even I am surprised at the number of mobile payment wallets that are available, and I am not counting all of the merchant apps with payment capabilities. Everyone wants me to download their wallet or app to my mobile phone – from Starbucks, to Square Wallet to Google and the list goes on. So I have decided to take a journey over the next few weeks and experience a variety of mobile payment wallets and apps that are available in the US marketplace and will end with Apple Pay.
With so many competing wallets, it has become too confusing and too burdensome for the consumer to select any wallet. MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Visa have their wallets, banks have their wallets, card issuers have their wallets and there are a number of general purpose wallets.
And it seems as though every merchant has an app and many, like Chipotle and Starbucks, have their own app with payment capabilities, …everyone has a wallet or an app! Will consumers have 200 payment wallets and payment apps on their mobile device?
Based on my research, there must be over 100 competing mobile payment wallets available today and new ones are being added every day[1] and probably hundreds of merchant-centric apps.
And it seems as though every merchant has an app and many, like Chipotle and Starbucks, have their own app with payment capabilities, …everyone has a wallet or an app! Will consumers have 200 payment wallets and payment apps on their mobile device?
Based on my research, there must be over 100 competing mobile payment wallets available today and new ones are being added every day[1] and probably hundreds of merchant-centric apps.
Before I start my journey, I want to outline some questions that I believe need to be answered by each wallet and app I test. And the questions are really from the perspective of the general public (not us payments people). Here are mine, and I would like to hear from others on questions that you would like to address. Here are my questions in a chronological order:
How is the wallet marketed/advertised to the general public? What media channels? How do I know the wallet exists? What is the message to me?
- Why do I need this mobile wallet? (Isn’t this the first question that needs to be answered in a manner that is simple and straightforward for the general public?) What issue does it address? How is my life better by using the wallet?
- Is it a payment-only wallet? Does it have loyalty/rewards? Other benefits?
- How do I get the wallet? Download from iTunes app store? Scan a QR code? Go to a web site?
- Now that I have downloaded the app to my mobile phone, how difficult is it for me to register/set up? Are there a few simple steps or do you need to be a nuclear engineer to figure it out? Does it ask from my bank account information? My debit/credit card number?
- Where can I use the mobile wallet? How many stores (real brick-and-mortar stores) not online stores - use it at Point-of-sale (POS) locations. Transit?
- What is the POS experience? Contact-less/NFC? QR code?
- Is the POS experience easy? Hard? Confusing? Does it actually work?
- What information do I get sent to me after the sale? Do I get my receipt emailed to me? A text message? Is the transaction listed on my wallet? Did I earn points?
- Are there fees? Do I need to reload my wallet (manually or automatically)? Is the transaction a prepaid card? Or my debit/credit card? Does it use the Automated Clearing House (ACH) network?
These are just some of the questions I intend to answer, and I am sure as I go through my journal, I will add more questions. In addition to answering the questions, I will rate each of the wallets and apps from a general public perspective, on each of the category questions listed here, on a scale of 1, 2 or 3.
- 1 (Confusing, Needs Work)
- 2 (Okay, Average)
- 3 (Easy, Better Than Most)
How many wallet apps are too many?
The following are just some of the wallets and apps that I will review in the coming weeks:
- Square Wallet
- Google Wallet
- bPay
- CardStar
- LevelUp
- Belly
- Venmo
- PayPal
- MocaPay
- Starbucks, and many more
First up will be the Google Wallet! Check back to see how Google fared.
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