Tag Archives: payments

March 12, 2015

“Apple Pay Accepted Here” alerts needed to drive adoption

By ericdunstan

Little Screen Shot 2015-03-12 at 11.21.46 AMLeague baseball season recently started which meant a trip to Sports Authority to purchase the relevant equipment. Fortunately, most of the items for t-ball are in the under $20 each category which makes the financial commitment more bearable. Like most dads, the start of Little League season brings back many fond baseball memories including a controversial meeting of a reigning Miss California. When I say “controversial” I mean it raised a few eyebrows as to why she attended, whom she knew on the team and the outfit she was wearing. It turns out she was dating our team’s assistant coach and used her fashion sense to keep his attention off the game played on the field. Dads enjoyed the game that much more. Moms were furious. Funny the things one remembers from more youthful days.

I was excited about the recent trip to Sports Authority for an entirely selfish reason. I was super stoked for a chance to FINALLY use Apple Pay! When I purchased my iPhone 6 Plus, the first thing I did was load on my bank’s ATM and credit cards. Why? Because I’m a FinTech guy…and this sort of thing gets me just as excited as a chance to meet Miss California. However, my Apple Pay excitement quickly slid down into a “now what?” I really struggled to find a place to use Apple Pay within my network of retailers that I frequent. Based on a recent BI Intelligence survey, just 8% of large US retailers currently accept Apple Pay. Keep in mind this stat focuses on LARGE US RETAILERS. I don’t shop a lot at large US retailers. I’m a keep it local type of guy…or at least keep it regional type of guy. When I did visit an Apple Pay enabled business like Toys R Us the opportunity to pay with my phone slipped by for I was not reminded that my chance arrived.

When it came time to bay for the baseball pants, socks and belt I whipped out my iPhone (that scene from “Blazing Saddles” comes to mind)

with great excitement and said, “OK, I want to use Apple Pay. How do I make this work?” My question should raise grave concerns from Apple and the retailer. However, what happened next should FREAK APPLE OUT. “Uhhhh,” began the clerk. “I don’t know…let me talk to my manager.” I stopped the clerk, saving him a trip to find the manager. I scanned my phone over the payment terminal, used my touch ID and the payment was made. “Oh, great…you figured it out,” the clerk said. So wrong.

This frustration is shared with many iPhone loving friends and FinTech colleagues. Clearly Apple Pay merchant adoption needs to increase and consumers need to be reminded to us it. Hopefully this is all changing with greater merchant adoption and the launch (FINALLY!) of the Apple Watch. The same BI Intelligence survey revealed that 56% of retailers say they will accept Apple Pay by 2018. But doing the quick math, this means that 44% still will not…and we all know these merchants will be the locally owned business.

Eric DunstanSo where does Apple Watch fit in driving Apple Pay adoption? Well for starters, the payment process gets much easier for the watch will be tethered to the iPhone loaded with the relevant cards. Users double click a button on the phone, place the watch near the payment terminal and payment is made. Skin sensor technology verifies the watch is on the verified user’s wrist to prevent unauthorized use. The watch really helps make Apply Pay easy to use. Ease of use means greater user adoption.

Informing users that Apple Pay is accepted is the remaining adoption hurdle to be solved. Frankly, I’m a little surprised this hurdle has not been addressed. It seems easy to solve. Functionally needs to be implemented to push alerts to Apple Watch users when they are near a payment terminal that accepts Apple Pay. Given how integrated watches are to routine interaction and reference, these alerts will be easily seen. Better yet, leveraging the iBeacon technology, merchants can send Apple Pay alerts to customers as soon as they walk in the door and before any purchases are made. Ease of payment may be enough of a factor to push the customer to a purchase decision. I am envisioning personal finance expert, Alexa von Tobel at Learn Vest cringing right now!!!

I’m excited that we are moving closer to not having to carry a bulky wallet anymore. The Apple Watch and alerts to use Apple Pay will train and shape the right habit to eventually push me to leave a wallet at home. Now, if I can only get my drivers license, loyalty cards AND annual passes on my phone I will be wallet-less!

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September 8, 2014

Apple poised to deliver mobile payment system that just works

By ericdunstan

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 9.06.31 PMI started off my week with a trail run and then a quick stop off at a downtown locally owned coffee joint. The coffee shop is filled with laptop toting Silicon Valley types, local Lululemon wearing trail bunnies and a myriad of salon and spa employees on their way to bill $150 for a 1-hour deep tissue massage. I stood in line and waited to pay for my overpriced cup of coffee. I’m an old school guy and paid in cash while most people paid using their debit/credit card. It seems strange to me to pay for something so cheap with plastic…but, hey, I AM old school right? However, of the 10+ payment transactions I saw, no one paid with his or her phone using the NFC feature of the payment reader. Now don’t panic…you are not the only one who has not seen the NFC technology in action. Very few merchants even have a card reader that includes NFC technology. Forbes magazine ran a piece in mid 2013 that asked the question if NFC payments were dead. After all, the only major retailer to include NFC technology at checkout is Walmart…and adoption is LOW. However, this will most likely all begin to change on September 9.Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 9.01.31 PM

Apple yet again has the media and its loyal customer base all in a flutter with what will be announced at their big event on September 9. Of course everyone is super excited about what’s happening with the iPhone 6 and the expected announcement of their first wearable device. There is also buzz around a key feature of the iPhone and wearable – will these devices enable customers to make payments for goods and services at retail? Will Apple finally break into the payments space and push mobile payments into the mainstream? This buzz, of course, is mostly coming from technology people, but will have massive implications for consumers and merchants now and in the future. A big shift is coming.

Reports from the Financial Times and tech bloggers indicate that the iPhone 6 will include a near field communication (NFC) chip to enable mobile payments. Adding fuel to the mobile payments speculation, CNET recently reported that Apple has forged partnerships with all the major credit card providers and payments networks including American Express, Visa and MasterCard. Wow, these relationships are great leading indicators that Apple is poised to bring a true mobile payments tool, or wallet, to the mainstream audience. Color me stoked.*

Looking at this a little more closely, however, the media focus is on the consumer side of Apple’s payments technology.   But wait…I thought NFC payments was dead with very few retail shops and big box stores offering this form of payment? Is Apple setting itself up for a black eye if their payments tool is not accepted at most locations? Did Apple only think of the consumer side of this equation and totally miss the merchant? Not at all. Apple thought through this quite nicely and I’m surprised there is not more technology media focus on this strategic partnership that ties it all together. Once again, Apple has proven the importance of controlling the complete ecosystem to create products that revolutionize consumer behavior. Here’s how.

Screen Shot 2014-09-04 at 8.55.09 PMApple announced a few months back a strategic alliance with Big Blue. I provided my point of view in an earlier post on how the Apple/IBM partnership will affect the banking industry. This partnership will also affect the technology these banks provide their business banking clients (merchants) at point of sale. For example, the infusing of Apple technology into the bank provided payment terminals will enable merchants to collect payments using NFC in addition to accepting card swipes. Apple strategically addressed the biggest roadblock in enabling adoption of mobile payments – how can merchants accept payment from a mobile device without undoing the POS payment system that is already in place.

The Apple/IBM relationship enables Apple to create the complete system required to connect consumers with merchants through a single payments technology. No other technology provider can do this. However, Samsung sees this happening and is quickly putting together their “me too” plan for the Android market. There are rumors flying around that Samsung is partnering with Loopt to connect consumers to merchants through one payments system as well.

There will be a lag between what Apple announces around payments and the launch of the complete ecosystem.   However, given the amount of iPhone users who already have their credit card on file in iTunes, the major credit card providers will be HOT to get the NFC card readers in place to enable card use in the online and offline world. We can expect a lot of pressure on the banks to get the NFC enabled payment terminals out to market quickly.

How we pay for things will be very different a year from now. Now if Apple can solve how to securely store my driver license, loyalty cards and annual memberships cards as well, I can finally stop carrying around my wallet!

* I’ve sprinkled many “Easter Eggs” through out my posts to make reading more fun. These eggs include cultural references from the ‘80s, ‘90s and present day. If you get the reference, send me a tweet (@ericdunstan) with the answer.

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April 21, 2014

Avoiding the boom-chickaboom clubs at Finovate in San Jose

By ericdunstan

I have attended several Finovate events over the past few years in their exotic 🙂 locals of San Francisco, New York, London and Singapore. As a denizen of the south end of the San Francisco Bay Area, I was surprised and excited to see that the next FinovateSpring event will be hosted in San Jose at the City National Civic.

Screen Shot 2014-04-18 at 11.59.10 AMSan Jose is roughly 50 miles south of San Francisco and has long time positioned itself as the capital of the famous (if not infamous) Silicon Valley. San Jose is home to many tech giants including eBay/PayPal and Cisco. Apple, Google, Yahoo and Facebook are located in cities just 20 minutes up the 101 or 85 freeways. San Jose is also home to the San Jose Sharks who are snapping at the heals of the LA Kings in divisional play offs.

Even though the San Jose area is home to many world famous brands, technologies and teams, it is NOT a booming cultural mecca of historical sites, tourist attractions and a bustling night life. In fact, the downtown San Jose area rolls up the sidewalks after work hours and most restaurants close down around 9pm. Unfortunately, any nightlife is limited to the standard “boom-chickaboom” type clubs that blare “Rhythm of the Night” on a speaker turned up to 11.  Yes, I’m aware that I’m mashing together several pop culture references here.

So where to go and what to do when we all descend on San Jose for FinovateSpring on April 29 and 30? For starters, I’ve listed below a series of local restaurants that are great to host business dinners at and are within walking distance of the Civic.

Original Joe’s  – Does not accept reservations and good for smaller parties.

Il Fornaio – Accepts reservations and hosts larger parties.

The Grill – Accepts reservations and hosts larger parties.

Firehouse – Accepts reservations and hosts larger parties.

There are a few options for after dinner entertainment…but they are limited. The San Jose Sharks will be in Los Angeles unfortunately. However, there may be something happening at the SAP Center worth attending. The nearby Hotel De Anza and the Fairmont Hotel hosts jazz musicians in their lobbies most nights for something more low key.  However, avoid the bars and club scene in downtown San Jose.  There was a fatal stabbing at a bar just last week…and it even happened on a night early in the week.

Screen Shot 2014-04-18 at 12.00.19 PMAs a resident of the south bay area, I recommend visiting the nearby town of Los Gatos. Los Gatos is a small town tucked to the side (map) of the Sillicon Valley and is a 15 min drive or cab ride South/West of San Jose. There are several great restaurants in the downtown area and many interesting bars for after dinner drinks and strategy sessions. “Rhythm of the Night” is seldom heard.

I’ve listed my favorites based on personal experience. I recommend making reservations at all restaurants for each is well known in the area.

Restaurants

Nick’s

Cin Cin

The Lexington House

Bars

Carry Nations

C.B. Hannegan’s

The Black Watch

Cabs can be hard to find in the area so ask the restaurant/bar host to call one for your party.  Keep in mind that Los Gatos is also a great town to just walk around in too.  If you are into exotic cars, the Los Gatos Luxury Cars  dealership has a store on Main St where one can drool over Aston Martins, Bentleys and Lamborghinis.  There are also several gift shops and clothes boutiques to purchase a peace offering for the home front. There is an Apple store too in case you forgot your iPhone charger at home.

I hope you enjoy FinovateSpring and have a chance to explore the Silicon Valley.

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April 1, 2014

Mobile payments innovators must eat more fast food

By ericdunstan

Like a good citizen of the FinTech community, I downloaded the major payments apps to my iPhone including PayPal, Square and Dwolla. I also searched for opportunities to add loyalty cards to my phone’s Passbook. I deposited a small amount in each payments app and added my Starbucks card to Passbook eager to make a payment with my mobile device. Unfortunately, each of these payments apps and features remain unopened after a year from downloading. I have not been successful in finding stores in my local area that accept payments from Square or PayPal or have a loyalty card compatible with Passbook, aside from Starbucks.   To make matters worse, I typically just open up the Starbucks app directly and avoid Passbook all together!  Clearly the mobile payments or wallet value chain is broken and innovators are struggling with defining how customers and businesses want to use the mobile device to drive their purchases.

Screen Shot 2014-03-31 at 3.45.39 PMThose of us who follow FinTech closely are well aware of the struggle for defining the mobile wallet correctly. “Wallet” is a loose term these days.  Most people believe payment apps are wallets even though a wallet typically includes feature or cards beyond just payment tools.  If this wallet perception is true, then why are apps like Square and PayPal NOT the driver of mobile wallet ubiquity? I think getting closer to the correct definition of the mobile wallet requires us to pay close attention to what’s happening at retail…specifically at the fast food franchise level.

National fast food chains such as Burger King and Wendy’s are launching mobile apps that enable customers to order and pay for food using a credit card.  These apps are retailer specific mobile wallets that will enable the brands to build deep customer relationships by understanding buying patterns to then reward customers with specials offers and discounts. Frankly, I’m a little surprised it has taken the fast food guys so long to build and launch these apps. Starbucks has been doing this for over two years. Over the past few years Starbucks has clearly won my loyalty as they guide my purchasing through bonus star offerings. There are significant implications for mobile payments innovators if the Burger King and Wendy’s apps are widely adopted and are successful in generating more revenue and creating deeper customer relationships.

First of all, consumers are saying they want brand specific apps that enable them to pay and reward their loyalty. Think the Starbucks app.  These mobile applications are essentially loyalty cards.Screen Shot 2014-03-31 at 3.44.39 PM Secondly, consumers are also saying they are willing to pay with their credit card through the application…and don’t need a new payment platform. For example, the Burger King and Wendy’s applications require the consumer to enter in credit card information upon sign up to make purchases. The consumer makes purchases on the same Visa, Mastercard or AMEX platform used to make all their online and offline payments. These mobile payments will also be covered by the policies defined by each credit card to protect against fraud. Given the entrenched credit card payments system and fraud protections, there is really no consumer need to sign up and manage another payment platform.

Brands and retailers will be monitoring closely the success of these fast food applications. If these applications continue to be effective payment empowered loyalty cards, what role does the mobile device play?  Similar to a real wallet, the mobile device is the holder of the many branded loyalty and payments apps.  Does this put the mobile devise in a unique position should these retail brand specific apps be successful?  Yes, for the mobile device IS now the mobile wallet.  No one should have a heart attack and die from digesting this concept.  It’s nothing new and is a recurring theme a several mobile payments conferences.  Daniel Mattes, the CEO and founder of Jumio, articulated his vision for the mobile device as a wallet at Money2020.

However, there has been such focus around the mobile wallet being an individual application that many people think of Square and a few others as being wallet innovators.  This is starting to change as people digest what Apple may be doing in the payments space.  Thinking this through, Steve Jobs may have had a similar vision. Passbook is a feature to store tickets and loyalty cards. It’s not a stretch to envision storing encrypted credit card information and ID on the device. I think it’s safe to assume that Apple will not be entering just the payments business….but will most likely be defining and enabling the iPhone to be a true digital wallet. Expect Samsung to follow a similar strategic path.

The big question will be how long it will take for the mobile payments vertical to evolve to this point. A lot of money has been invested in Square, Flint and PayPal to invent another platform. However, Visa and Mastercard will be active and well funded suppliers in the mobile payments war. It will be a matter of time until the right mobile device features emerge that enable the major credit cards to easily plug themselves in to mobile transactions. Once the right device feature emerges, the mobile payments vertical will be locked up quickly.  Unfortunately, this means many payments apps will become part of those “hey, do you remember….” so common at cocktail parties.

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January 21, 2014

What Can Bank Social CRM Teams Learn from Ford? A lot!

By ericdunstan

Last year my wife and I began our search process to find a new SUV. Our consideration set included Toyota, Ford and Chevrolet. I tweeted out one evening that we were considering the Ford Explorer and asked for feedback from my community.  Within 24 hours I received a reply…not only from friends, but also from Ford.  The response included a link to the Explorer’s features and an offer to schedule a test drive. Color me impressed. (Tweet me at @ericdunstan with the 80s movie reference)

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I responded that we were interested in a test drive. A Ford rep quickly responded and offered to schedule a demo and to provide incentives.

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Ford is effectively using social media as a lead generation tool and quickly acquired my information to schedule a test drive.  I used all natural language text with no # or handles. Clearly Ford is monitoring the social media channels and has an effective strategy to capture the information and act on it.   Nice work.

I recently blogged about my frustration with the mobile deposit feature of the Wells Fargo mobile application.  I tweeted my frustration as part of a theraputic venting processes.  Within 24 hours Wells Fargo replied with a tip to address the mobile application #fail and a request for me to call a 1-800 number to address any further issues.

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I applaud Well Fargo for capturing or “hearing” my frustration on Twitter and responding.  However, given the importance of social media as a marketing channel, Wells Fargo’s response is almost a given.  I would imagine that almost all of the Top 100 banks have similar processes in place to monitor and manage the social media channel.  However, I believe Wells Fargo’s response falls short of meeting my customer needs and their social media team could learn a lot from what Ford is doing.

The Wells response was very generic and made me do the heavy lifting.  “Try closing the app and restarting your phone.  If the problem persists, please call 800….”  Duh. Wells Fargo, I’ve been an iPhone user sense the iPhone 3 and know that restarting an app is a quick fix.  However, given the Wells app recent reviews, I think this functionality fail is an application problem.  Additionally, the LAST thing I want to do is call your 800 number to then have to dial through a myriad of prompts to eventually talk with a representative after a several minute wait.

The Ford response was very personal, responded to my specific question, and provided a channel to connect with a representative directly.  Ford made me feel personally taken care of, listened to and treated as a desired customer.  Wells could have worked harder by…

1. Offering to collect my information so an online/mobile customer service rep could contact me directly

2. Having the rep present the option of contacting him or her directly through a Twitter DM to help trouble shoot

3. Providing me a link to their website with a list of known issues

4. Acknowledging my frustration and offering an incentive as a “mea culpa” for their failed application

I feel like my concerns were heard by Wells Fargo, but I don’t feel personally taken care of to ensure my issue was resolved and that I’m a valued customer.  This is an example of the difference between just listening to the customer and engaging with the customer.  By engaging with the customer, Wells has the opportunity to personally respond to my need to show that my customer relationship is valued.  Ford did this so well that we bought an Explorer from them.

Moving beyond just listening to and engaging with the customer may require rethinking how customer support teams are trained and incentivized.  Additionally, companies should consider implementing a social media analytics and engagement software solution.  These solutions go beyond functionality of Tweet Deck that enable users to track multiple accounts and listen for mentions of their company or brand.  The more robust solutions, like Attensity or Nimble, for example, enable companies to listen to the customer, analyze the need and then act on meeting the customer need.

Consumers are increasingly frustrated with their banking relationship. There are a few Internet and mobile only banks, like GoBank or Moven, which take the mobile experience and customer service seriously.  Leading banks, including Wells Fargo, will quickly lose customers should they not learn how to actively engaged with their customers through all channels of customer support, including social media.

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January 11, 2014

Know your customer first to find the right strategic partnerships

By ericdunstan

This week I had a conversation with an executive at a mobile banking company. We spent a majority of our time discussing the strategy of using strategic partnerships to build a customer base, deliver products that meet customer needs and generate revenue. This executive shared an unfortunate experience where his team was pushed into a partnership where they provided most of the product development resources and had to commit to the lion share of the marketing spend to promote.  Unfortunately, the double barrel commitment yielded little return in helping the company achieve its goals. The partnership was more of a distraction and had high opportunity costs. Frustrating.

Strategic partnerships are an important lever to pull to grow revenue, drive acquisition, build out technology, and increase product functionality.  However, it’s mission critical that the right strategic partnerships be established or the relationships will be a distraction and take critical focus off of what is important.

One of the most important exercises a company must go through is to understand who their customer is and how the company will meet customer needs.  Without this understanding, it will be impossible to find the right strategic partnerships. Once the customer is understood, companies need to evaluate potential partners across 4 factors.

The first factor is access to the right customer.  Will the partner enable a company to market their product to a customer segment that will generate revenue and have high life time value?  If not, the partnership will yield access to consumers whose needs are not met.  As a result, little value will be provided to the company.  Unfortunately this happens far to often as young companies rush to find ways to acquire new users and monetize as quickly as possible.  As we all know, this is a symptom of a short-term focus and a need to show growth to current and would be investors.

The second factor is to understand the required investment needed to realize the value of the strategic partnership.  For example, eBay entered into a strategic partnership with PayPal to meet the needs of its users to pay for things securely online.  Yes, eBay had to invest product resources to integrate the PayPal technology into its listings.  However, the investment had a very positive ROI for it brought huge value to eBay buyers and sellers. The product partnership proved to be very successful, as we know, and eventually resulted in eBay acquiring PayPal.

The third factor is the company’s internal resources and willingness to support the partnership.  I’ve seen many companies stumble on this factor. I was part of an organization that needed to partner to quickly provide product features to remain competitive.  It was one of those standard “make vs buy” debates that resulted in the executive team deciding to move forward with a partnerships strategy.  Unfortunately, employees outside of the executive committee did not feel they had the resources needed to support any technology partnerships and quickly dug their heals in and resisted any discussions. Needless to say, any partnership agreements quickly stalled in the implementation process.

The last factor is both parties’ shared interest in a successful outcome.  The partnership must be of equal or greater strategic importance to both partners.  While at Excite@Home I managed a strategic partnership with Paramount Pictures that was designed to increase awareness that Excite was a destination to learn more about the latest blockbuster movies. I managed a team of developers, designers and marketers to build solutions to promote Paramount’s movies across the Excite@Home network.   We busted our butts to get things done.  Unfortunately, Paramount didn’t have much interest in promoting us as defined in our partnership agreement.  We were lucky to get an Excite@Home logo placement on the front page of the Paramount website…but were nowhere close to receiving any offline placements.  Paramount reminded us of this too frequently.  Such is life in the big city. It will always be Silicon Valley vs Hollywood.

So blah.  What is the conclusion to my bloviation? Before company executives start frothing at the mouth to strike strategic partnerships, it’s important to do the introspective work first.  Who is your customer?  What customer needs are being met with the product?  What needs are not being addressed by the product?  Only with this sense of corporate self-awareness can companies enter into fruitful strategic partnerships.  Without doing the upfront work first, it’s like searching for a spouse without knowing what qualities one is looking for in a mate.

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December 30, 2013

Mobile platform security is key for mobile payments providers

By ericdunstan

I was at one of many Christmas parties and conversation topics, of course, covered “where will you be for Christmas” and “are you done with your shopping.”  Almost everyone was done with their shopping, but the big follow up question was “Well, did you end up shopping at Target?” There were a handful of people at this gathering that did shop at Target over the ill-fated shopping period.

The conversation very quickly involved everyone around the buffet table and included comments like, “I can’t believe hackers actually were able to break into a huge chain like Target” and “your credit card information is not safe anywhere!” Clearly EVERYONE at this party will be checking their credit card statements very closely in January!

However, one comment made really grabbed me. “If my credit card can be swiped by hackers at Target, I’m sure as hell not going to want to use my phone to pay for stuff.”  Obviously this exclamation sparked another round of fervent debate and discourse. A few well-known coffee and pastry shops in the area were called out in conversation as using new mobile payments technologies and were “flagged” as potential places to monitor for card fraud.

The implications of the Target data breach on the mobile payments vertical are HUGE.  There are serious challenges that must be addressed both on the consumer and business side of the equation for the many emerging mobile payments technology providers.

First of all, consumers have the perception that it’s no longer safe to use even debit or credit cards at physical retail stores.  According to one account of the Target breach, a security analyst at a major bank was made aware that cybercriminals were planning to sell online a new stock of stolen credit/debit cards.  The analyst bought the stolen card numbers of his/her bank customers using Bitcoin.  Presumably, these transactions lead to the discovery that these card numbers were stolen from Target.

One could easily make the assumption that Target was not even aware of the breach until the bank analyst made these card number purchases from the cybercriminals. Yikes! This lack of awareness of the problem scares me deeply at the consumer level.  Would Square be able to quickly inform a merchant that consumer’s payment data has been swiped and is being sold by cybercriminals? Could Square inform users that their data was stolen?

Secondly, business and IT executives at Target and all major retailers are wondering how and why the Target payments system was hacked.  Obviously, there are fast and furious internal investigations within Target as their legal and technical teams prepare for a barrage of lawsuits coming their way from banks and consumers.  These Target executives will be pounding on the doors of their payment system providers and their 3rd party vendors as well.

The discovery phase of these lawsuits will get UGLY FAST.  Moving forward post breach, all physical and online retail payment platform providers will be evaluated with much greater scrutiny with a focus on platform security, ability to detect a data breach and processes to quickly inform users that data has been compromised.

Emerging payment providers such as Square, Dwolla and PayPal need to address these implications head-on to address consumer and business needs in a post Target data breach world.

Platform security is now a big focus.  Yes, each provider does have website messaging that talks to how secure their platform is.  However, security requirements and technology must be increased especially as the payments platforms are being sold into individual SMBs and at the enterprise level that use multiple mobile devices to process transactions.

Mobile payment providers can quickly equip themselves with cutting edge mobile platform security technology through strategic partnerships.  Industry leaders include MobileIron, Good Technology, or AirWatch.  For example, by partnering with MobileIron, Square can provide a layer of mobile platform security to their SMB customers who use the payment platform across multiple mobile devices (payment terminals).

Addressing the mobile platform security needs will help address consumer concerns as well that their payment data and money are safe at the payment platform level. Square, Dwolla and PayPal must educate consumers on WHY their payment data and money are safe.  Providers must clearly explain what happens if a Square account is hacked and the PIN number and cash balance is stolen.  Can these providers stand behind a guarantee that transactions are safe?  Can they back up consumers’ cash balances if the money is stolen?  These are all key concerns that must be addressed for consumers to feel safe in using mobile payments technology to pay for items at physical retail.

Personally, I keep a very low balance in my mobile PayPal account that is connected to a low balance bank account.  Why?  I still don’t trust that the receiving terminal is that secure and nefarious code could somehow steal my account numbers and distribute across the world…all through an unsecured wireless connection at the SMB’s business location.  Maybe I’m just paranoid and uneducated.

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December 20, 2013

Square is proving to be a valuable alternative payment solution for small businesses

By ericdunstan

This past weekend I had a great conversation with a friend of mine about wine, politics, classic cars and payment technology.  As the song goes, “these are a few of my favorite things.”  My friend, Mick, is an auto mechanic based out of Monterey, CA who focuses primarily on British and other European import cars.  When I say British, I mean early 1970 Mini Coopers before BMW started importing the more stylized versions with nifty customized paint jobs and stripes. He’s a British car enthusiast’s enthusiast…with the accent and Rolling Stones t-shirt to boot.

Mick is a savvy business guy and has A LOT to say about small business banking, lending, payments processing and taxation.  After a few mimosas the conversation gets very lively as you can well imagine.

I learned that Mick currently uses the payment processing tools, software and equipment provided by his business bank, Rabobank.  The bank makes it easy for his business to use their credit card processing machines through favorable card processing fees, equipment leasing options and bundled low interest loans and credit cards.   Rabobank typically charges him 2 ½% – 3% on processing fees for Visa and MasterCard transactions only.  The bank also has account managers available to help with any problems in the payments processed…and are constantly trying to cross sell him into other bank products.

Last month Mick started to explore alternative payment processing options out of frustration with the Rabo solution.  Rabobank processes payments only in his shop using Rabo supplied machines.  Unfortunately, his checking account does not receive the payment until 3-5 business days after the credit card transaction is made.  These machines are a bit clunky and keep him tied to his shop which is a problem for he deals with many customers at other garages. The solution also does not connect to his inventory management solution so he has to track each sale separately on his supplier order forms.

A friend suggested that he look into Square.  His eyes got wider as he described all the great features Square has to offer through a FREE downloadable app and simple card reader connected to his iPad. Yes, the wide eyes could have been due to the mimosas, but his excitement was palpable.

“Through Square I can now load and access all of my parts inventory and process orders from anywhere.  I met a guy at a coffee shop last week and he ordered several Jaguar parts from me.  I punched in the order on my iPad, ran his credit card and emailed him the receipt. I gave him the parts and it was done.  Amazing.”

Mick was also excited about the 2.75% transaction fee, no equipment rentals and the ability to access Visa, Mastercard, Discover and AMEX.  The excitement around the mix of credit cards surprised me.  However, his clients are typically high-end car collectors.  AMEX is this customer segment’s card of choice….which is a point of differentiation for Mick’s shop compared to others in the Monterey and Carmel area.  Another benefit to Square is the ability to receive the payment deposit the next business day.  For Mick, and for any small business owner, this is HUGE to support the cash flow of his business.

The missing link is for Square transactions to integrate with a QuickBooks account.  Right now he has to export the Square transactions as a .csv file and then import into QuickBooks.  “It’s a bloody pain in the ass,” he says.  However, in time I’m sure Intuit will build out the API for easy automatic imports.

So how should Rabobank, and other small business lenders, feel about Mick’s Square epiphany?  Clearly, the Square solution is a formidable threat to Rabo’s business banking division.  Banks feed on a steady revenue stream from the services and relationships they support from their small business banking business. Banks need to pay close attention to how small business clients are responding to the Square solution and either adjust their payments business/product or consider a strategic partnership with this (and other) innovator.

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