Dive Brief:
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Tailored mobile payment apps could save retailers, who spend some $150 billion annually on credit-card fees, significant amounts of money.
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Starbucks' payment-reward app boasts 10 million users, and retailers like Apple, Google, and PayPal are in a race to develop the industry standard.
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Mobile payment apps have the added benefit of providing a way of collecting consumer information that could help retailers develop personalized loyalty programs.
Dive Insight:
Starbucks is having notable success with its payment-rewards app, something that other companies are eyeing closely. Trouble is, consumers probably wouldn't tolerate too much individualization in this area; imagine how cumbersome it would be to have a separate mobile wallet for every store. That’s why there’s a race to come up with some kind of standard. Still, this is an area that holds big potential for both customer loyalty programs and saving on those pesky credit-card fees.