How do you know when an industry is ripe for a shake-up? It could be when market growth stagnates, end customers lose sight of the value, or the entire ecosystem is broken by new players with new technology. That type of revolution is currently underway in the mobile payment industry. Formerly dominated by Visa, MasterCard, and AMEX, companies like Apple are breaking in and fundamentally changing how payments are being processed.
Mobile Payment: Disruption will be inevitable
Unlike traditional options, Apple Pay, Apple’s Mobile Payment option, operates over the iPhone and uses Near Field Communications technology (NFC is short range communications between your phone and the Point of Sale device). Here is how it works in practice: You buy an item and go to the check-out counter and instead of swiping your credit card, your phone connects to the POS terminal aka “cash register” and provides the payment details to the retailer. For this to work today, your credit card information must already be loaded on your iPhone. Apple Pay is fundamentally an “on-ramp” onto the existing credit card industry infrastructure. So, in the past, when you purchased an item at the store, you used your credit card, you swiped it or put it in one of those slow responding chip readers. With Apple Pay your iPhone eliminates the need to carry the actual credit card, all while collecting roughly 0.15% of the transaction. It is clear, with the substantial margins on payment transactions which amount to trillions of dollars, disruption will be inevitable. Other players to keep an eye on are the big banks and large retailers like Walmart who in time will probably have their own payment systems.
New markets with impactful technology are shaking up the game
What about other industries? How can you predict that technology is on the verge of a disruption event? The intersection between cloud, ease-of-use, transparency, and customer benefit lends itself to a critical evaluation of shifting technology and finding a better way to operate. For disruptive companies, like Retarus, entrances to new markets with updated and impactful technology are shaking up the game. Want to learn more about how messaging is shifting? For more information click here or contact your local Retarus representative.
