Mobile Payments: Merchants' Perspectives
2014; Taylor & Francis; Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
1532-4168
AutoresFumiko Hayashi, Terri Bradford,
Tópico(s)Technology Adoption and User Behaviour
ResumoThe U.S. payment market has attracted increasing attention from technology firms and their investors seeking to capitalize on mobile and cloud technologies and the growing trend in consumer adoption of smartphones. Although consumers in the United States largely have not adopted mobile payments, merchants believe these technologies will address some current barriers to the use of mobile payments. In fact, many merchants are actively developing and implementing mobile payment applications.Will these new technologies increase the overall value of mobile payments for end users, namely merchants and consumers, and motivate them to use mobile payments? End users' preferences will influence the industry's direction as industry participants consider making investments and policymakers consider payments policies. This article focuses on merchants' mobile payments preferences because, unlike consumer payment preferences, there is little research on the merchant perspective.The article examines attributes of mobile payments that may be a benefit or a concern to U.S. brick-and-mortar merchants. The analysis is based on phone interviews with about 20 large and midsize merchants from various retail categories. The article finds some attributes have clear effects on merchants. An enhanced customer shopping experience will be a benefit for merchants, while, at least in the near term, fragmented markets-in which several mobile technologies and applications coexist but no one gains enough traction to propel the industry forward-will be a concern. The effect of other attributes, such as cost, customer data control, and security, depends on what technologies will be used, which payment method will be linked to fund the mobile payment transaction, and who will provide the mobile payment application.Section I reviews the current payment environment for merchants and compares basic features and associated business models of mobile payment technologies. Section II discusses key attributes of mobile payments for merchants-customer shopping experience, cost, customer data control, security, and fragmented markets-and examines how benefits and concerns about these attributes vary by merchant characteristics. Section III summarizes the findings and draws conclusions by discussing the direction of mobile payments in the United States.I. PAYMENT ENVIRONMENT AND MOBILE PAYMENT TECHNOLOGIESMerchants view the adoption of mobile payments methods, especially those that use barcodes, quick response (QR) codes, and cloud technology, as an opportunity to improve a payment environment long dominated by cards. Merchants generally have been dissatisfied with card fees and rules that limit payment acceptance practices, such as surcharging and discounting. Although any mobile payment technology theoretically can accommodate a variety of payment methods as a funding source, each mobile technology tends to favor a particular payment method due to business models associated with the technology.Payment cards-the current payment environmentAs the U.S. payments system has evolved from paper-based to electronic, the share of merchants' total sales made with payment cards has increased. The share of consumers that prefers to use a payment card (either a credit, debit, or prepaid card) over other payment methods at brick-and-mortar merchants increased from 49 percent in 2001 to 69 percent in 2010 (Chart 1). Consequently, fees charged to merchants to process payment cards, as well as rules and security standards set by payment card networks, significantly affect merchants' net income.Fees merchants pay to accept card transactions have risen rapidly in the last two decades because of increased volume and value of card transactions and increased fees per transaction. The increased fees per transaction are attributed to interchange fees, which are paid to card issuers and account for more than 80 percent of all fees merchants pay for card transactions. …
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