The New Way to Pay For Your Food in 2015

The Lempert Report
January 19, 2015

Will Mobile Payments Go Mainstream?

Get ready for mobile payments!  According to a new report from Business Insider’s BI Intelligence, mobile payments, as in the use of phones to make purchases in stores instead of cash or cards — will explode in 2015 thanks to the growing popularity of systems like Apple's new Apple Pay system. 

The new report from BI Intelligence, explains that many retailers have already adopted the technology for mobile payment apps like Apple Pay and with only a few US retailers making up for the bulk of over $4.7 trillion in aggregate payment volume, Business Insider believes it will only take a handful of these large retailers to drive an explosion in mobile payment. And according to the report, Apple Pay is showing early signs of success, data showed that payments made through Apple Pay accounted for between 0.1%-1.6% of transactions at five top retailers in the month following the launch of the feature. 

Other big name retailers like Target and Walmart are opting for alternative mobile payment option, CurrentC.  And according to Business Insider, even though this, yet to be launched, system has had some bad press CurrentC retailers account for over $1 trillion in annual volume.  And Google Wallet saw a jump in payment volume following the launch of Apple Pay. Finally, Softcard (formerly Isis), a mobile wallet backed by big wireless carriers including Verizon, developed some new deals as some retailers look for Android-based alternative to Apple Pay for their customers.

From Whole Foods to Walgreens retailers are adopting mobile payment options, but will shoppers jump on board? Some consumers may not completely trust this new spending approach. According to Tech Times, mobile payment vendors as well as retailers are going to have to do a little work to win over some shoppers, like securing customers through loyalty and reward programs. For example Starbucks who is driving customers to its mobile payment service by introducing rewards. So will 2015 be the year mobile payments takeover? We’ll have to wait and see!