Paul Hoeper

CEO

InvoiceASAP

www.invoiceasap.com

CEO at InvoiceASAP, Paul Hoeper has been working in the area of finance and receivables his entire career and now his startup is reaping the rewards with partnerships with Intuit and other major brands.

Mobile payments are not new, but have undergone major changes with advances in technology, use and adoption since we last reported. As people have become more comfortable with new technology, the process of completing financial transactions for goods or services using a mobile device instead of cash, checks or credit cards has gained momentum.  Mobile payments first emerged in the late 1990s in two vending machines in Finland; the machines accepted payment via SMS text messages. Mobile banking services and other commercial platforms quickly followed and, more recently, big box retailers introduced a Mobile Payments Exchange service. As noted in wikipedia.org, the launch of the iPhone led to the change from SMS systems to actual applications. Mobile payment systems like Google Wallet use near-field communications (NFC) to let consumers pay for things using credit card information stored in their Smartphones. Currently, usage of mobile payments is not comprehensive because retailers have yet to produce a unified front, but development will depend on consumer demand. Jamie Belnikoff, associate director at ICM Research, said in an article on mobilepaymentstoday.com, “Genuine security concerns and the lack of terminals in shops, as well as a lack of in-store promotion, are also keeping consumers from adopting mobile wallets.” According to Gary Glover on franchising.com, merchants can avoid security issues by using an encrypt-at-swipe hardware reader. As for the future, Seth Fiegerman noted in his article on mashable.com that market research firm, IDC Financial Insights, reported $1 trillion in payments would be made on mobile devices by 2017. Meanwhile, Glover quoted the 2011 Payment Card Industry Standards Security Council (PCI SSC) advice: “Until the final standard for mobile payments is defined, the PCI SSC counsels merchants to "make their own risk assessments around the use of mobile payment solutions, considering the advice of their QSA and in consultation with their acquirers and applicable payment brands."” To turn this trend into an advantage for your organization, consider the following. Mobile payments are a stage four trend. They are about to explode into stage five which will be the stage where North America sees high adoption.  Mobile payments still prompt security concerns. Most of these concerns are unfounded, however. The mobile payments space is getting crowded. It's the perfect time for 2-3 players to emerge and lead the pack.I would make mobile payments part of your strategy now. Once full adoption hits this industry, the cost will increase so I would lock it in now. Watch Google, PayPal and InvoiceASAP for mobile payment prowess. These three are likely to emerge as long term players in mobile payments.