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Earlier this month, PYMNTS.com, a US-based analytics company with a focus on payment platforms, published data from their recent study on Apple Pay usage for in-store payments in the United States. The insights say it is not a habit yet. Why? Since 2014, Apple has done a lot of work in convincing the entire nation that Apple Pay is the modern way to pay. But Americans have been using plastic cards with magnetic strips to pay for goods and services for generations. Businesses have needed to start accepting contactless payments. People have needed to own the right device. Banks have needed to have an agreement in place with Apple Pay. And the same banks have been modernizing and issuing newContinue Reading

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Mobile wallets offer a seamless and highly secure payment option. They have grown in popularity over the last few years and made physical wallets obsolete. But mobile payments replacing credit cards was just the start. Your mobile phone is becoming your everything now. Declutter Your Wallet Mobile wallets such as Apple Wallet (working together with Apple Pay) or Google Pay are secure and organized folders. In addition to organizing your credit cards, they allow for adding, viewing, and managing other digital items that would occupy space in your physical wallet. In mobile wallets, you can keep digital boarding passes, frequent flyer cards, event tickets, or various loyalty cards, public transport passes, coupons, and much more. A few weeks ago, AppleContinue Reading

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Summer vacations are awesome, right? Returning from a break isn’t that much fun anymore. Before diving back into your emails and projects, let me get you an idea of how things were while you were gone. After years of shaking out who is who, Google Pay and Samsung Pay are pretty much the only Android players left in the mobile wallet transaction market in the United States — both supporting a pretty big variety of mobile phone brands. The bad news, though, is that they are both getting slaughtered by Apple Pay. A study by Pulse, an electronic funds transfer company, has been published, stated that payments using Apple Pay account for the staggering 92% of all mobile wallet paymentsContinue Reading

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Mobile wallets — launched just about a decade ago — have become popular as they are very convenient to use. Mobile wallets such as Apple Wallet and Google Pay count also to the most preferred ways people want to stay updated on deals, promotions, and discounts. People expect their mobile wallets to spoil them with offers and targeted notifications. Beyond easy payments by tapping the mobile phone, mobile wallets allow people to store, use and manage digital content from their favorite businesses. Digital coupons, loyalty cards, event tickets, boarding passes, and much more … Like every other mobile app, mobile wallets also feature push notifications. These messages would pop up as a banner on the lock screen of a mobileContinue Reading

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The objective of any loyalty program is to generate repeat visits. It is believed the first modern loyalty program commenced in 1793, when a Sudbury, New Hampshire merchant began rewarding customers with copper tokens. People could accumulate the tokens and use them for future purchases. The idea has been replicated by other retailers over the centuries — from branded metal tokens, over cutting-out trademarks from product packaging, various paper checks, tickets, certificates, and coupons, to plastic cards, stamps, miles, and points. But customers are not the same now as they were back then. We spend nearly a few hours a day on our mobile phones nowadays. Mobile phones allow us to stay connected, shop, or stay informed. And we haveContinue Reading

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NFC chips have changed the way we interact with the world around us. They have also enabled contactless payments as well as mobile payment services such as Apple Pay and Google Pay. Some time ago, I wrote here about what can NFC do. Today, let’s look at some of the best uses for NFC that will impress your customers. NFC stands for Near Field Communication. It is a set of standards that enable devices in close proximity — within a few centimeters of each other — to exchange information wirelessly. Mobile apps running on supported devices can use NFC scanning to read data from electronic tags attached to real-world objects. For example, people can scan an in-store sign to accessContinue Reading

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Digital transactions continue to rise. Over the last few years, the number of people using mobile wallets to make payments surged in Europe. And over the last two years, the value of mobile transactions doubled. Mobile payments are expected to make one-third of all point-of-sale transactions within the next two years. More people are using mobile wallets such as Apple Wallet or Google Pay at the present time. They are confident their financial data is secure. People are also exposed to the touted convenience of mobile payments. With the mobile wallet, people can keep their payment cards, loyalty cards, airline, train, and bus boarding passes, event tickets, discount coupons, booking confirmations, and more in a single app. And use theirContinue Reading

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Who loves to travel? I bet a lot of you do! It seems we will be free to travel again soon. Free to get on a plane or take a drive to meet a customer, or to go somewhere you have never been. But before we take off, let’s take a look at some of my favorite travel hacks. Never Check Your Bag The ones who know me would confirm that this is my absolute favorite travel hack. Seriously. Even if it might seem hard to avoid when traveling overseas or doing extended travel. Always pack your stuff wisely. Then you can avoid lost baggage nightmares. And save at least half an hour of each trip as you don’t haveContinue Reading

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Apple presented a preview of iOS 15 during an online keynote for Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company’s mid-year software show, earlier this month. Apple CEO Tim Cook said this next major version of the iPhone’s operating system will launch in the fall — likely in September. iOS 15 brings an enormous number of new features and improvements. Today, Apple Wallet is already incredibly powerful. It can be used to store credit and debit cards, rewards cards for stores, student IDs, airplane boarding passes, concert tickets, and more. It is essentially a digital replacement for a physical wallet, and compared to Google’s rival app — Google Pay — it is far ahead. And Apple continues to beef up its WalletContinue Reading

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The European Commission is proposing a new regulation for a European digital identity that will be available to all EU citizens, as well as residents, and businesses. Digital wallets will be offered to people and businesses by the member states. The move comes days after the EU’s digital COVID-19 certificate program went live in the first seven countries (all EU countries will be in the program by July 1). The European Commission is composed of commissioners from all 27 EU countries. It helps to shape the EU’s overall strategy, proposes new EU laws and policies, monitors their implementation, and manages the EU budget. The new European digital identity wallets will be linked to peoples’ national digital identities. In this newContinue Reading