Mobile Wallet Popularity Continues to Grow

They go by several names – mobile wallets, e-wallets, digital wallets. Whatever you choose to call them, their popularity with consumers is growing by leaps and bounds. Approximately 15 percent of consumers currently use mobile payments from a portable electronic device. Industry experts expect transactions from mobile devices to increase by roughly 200 percent this year.

Appeals to Millennials
Mobile wallets employ what’s known as near-field communications (NFC) to relay payment information to the POS by merely placing the mobile device over the POS. Not surprisingly, younger people are adopting mobile payments faster than other age groups. Over 40 percent of Internet users between the ages of 18-34 plan to use a mobile wallet, according to a poll done by Computer Services Inc. and Harris Interactive. So if your company caters to the millennial age group, you may want to adopt mobile payment technology as part of your POS system.

Variety of Platforms
There are several different mobile wallet systems on the market, so it’s a good idea to become familiar with the ones customers may want to use:

Apple Pay – All Apple iPhones, iPads, and Apple Watches can use the Apple Pay application. Users link their credit or debit card to the app to pay for the products or services they buy. Apple Pay can only be used with Apple products.

Android Pay – This is Google’s version of Apple Pay. It works the same way but can only be used with mobile devices with the Android operating system.

Samsung Pay – Samsung’s app is unique because you can use it as both a mobile wallet and for magnet strip payments, so it can be used with virtually any POS terminal. One drawback for consumers is that it can only be used with newer Samsung Galaxy phones, regardless of the operating system.

Mobile wallets are only going to become more ubiquitous in the marketplace, and you don’t want to lose out on sales if you don’t have the technology. Take a look at upgrading your POS terminals if they’re not able to process mobile payments.