What comes to mind when you think mobile payments? Emailing money from your phone? Using a mobile wallet? Shopping from a mobile device? In truth, all of these qualify as mobile transactions. And with the rapidly expanding use of mobile technology worldwide, if your business doesn’t accept mobile payments, it may be time to ask yourself why.
Mobile Payments Are on the Rise
Estimates put global mobile device usage at more than 5 billion individuals. In Canada alone, smartphone users are projected to reach 27.7 million by 2020.
More to the point, research suggests we’ll reach a major payment milestone next year, when 1.06 billion people worldwide are expected to make a proximity (in-store) mobile payment.
Digital, non-cash – and often non-card – transactions are clearly on the rise.
And while it’s true that some mobile payment options are being embraced more quickly than others, there’s no question they’re growing on the whole as we move closer to becoming a cashless society.
Simple Mobile Payment Solutions
Mobile payments include any transaction where money is exchanged for goods or services with the help of a mobile device (usually a smartphone).
Your business can take advantage of mobile technology to make it easy for customers to:
- transfer payment for goods or services,
- make spontaneous, in-store purchases without the need for cash, credit, or debit cards, and
- use their smartphones to shop on your website
Here are a few simple mobile solutions that can help your business improve sales and customer loyalty by giving buyers more payment options.
Mobile Money Transfers
Mobile invoicing apps from companies like QuickBooks and Zoho help you avoid unpaid invoices by making it easy to email digital bills directly from your phone to your clients. Your customers can then pay your electronic invoices quickly, securely, and on the go right from their own mobile devices.
If you run a cash business, provide in-home services, or sell goods outside a brick-and-mortar shop meanwhile, you may want to consider taking advantage of Canada’s most popular form of mobile money movement – e-transfer – to get reimbursed on the spot.
Mobile Wallets
Mobile wallets are convenient, downloadable phone apps powered by Near Field Communication (NFC). Because this advanced payment communication technology is embedded right into today’s smartphones, shoppers no longer need to carry chip-or-swipe payment cards with them.
Mobile wallets benefit your customers by letting them:
- safely store personal payment data right on their phones, and
- conveniently pay for in-store purchases by holding their phones up to your contactless, point-of-sale system
If you’re thinking about enabling your business to accept proximity mobile payments, take note that the most widely used digital wallets are Apple Pay, Google (Android) Pay, and Samsung Pay.
Mobile Payment Apps
Making your website easier to buy from with mobile-friendly payment apps is a great way to encourage more people to shop for your product more often.
You can quickly add a PayPal button to your existing online checkout, for example, that will give customers:
- an optimized mobile checkout experience,
- secure access to their preferred payment accounts, and
- freedom from having to enter their credit card information every time they make a purchase from their phone
Prefer to bring your business to the client? Companies like Square offer mobile payment apps that, when paired with a simple card reader, turn your smartphone into a mobile POS system.
Digital payments are growing in popularity across the US, while Canada is already firmly entrenched as a mobile payment society. With an estimated 6.8 million Canadian mobile payment users anticipated by the end of the year, what is your business doing to cash in on cashless payments?
