Big U.S. Retailers Join Forces to Develop Mobile Wallet

Wal-Mart Stores, Target Corp., 7-Eleven Inc. and Sunoco are among a dozen retail companies launching their own mobile payments system, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

The Merchant Customer Exchange, or MCX, is at an early stage, and represents the biggest move uet by retailers to take the lead in the mobile payments business that has largely featured initiatives by payment networks, though Google, PayPal, Intuit, Square and Isis (the mobile service provider consortium) also have competing services under development. 

Little can be gleaned about the specific approaches MCX will pursue. The main point is that the MCX venture shows the jockeying by ecosystem participants to lead or control the developing mobile payments business in ways that favor a particular segment. 

Retailers likely are most concerned about the costs. Processing networks are most concerned about preserving their transaction revenue streams. Banks are most worried about their fees. 

Point of sale providers are worried about replacement or substitute retail checkout systems. Mobile service providers and application providers are most interested in what could be gained in either the transaction revenue streams or new marketing and advertising services. 

E-commerce providers see opportunities to increase their sales share over physical brick and mortar retailers, while place-based retailers want to boost their share of online sales volume. 

Virtually all the contestants likely see upside in the area of customer knowledge, engagement and experience.