Mobile Point of Sale Winners, Losers

The “problem” for proponents of mobile wallet and mobile payments systems is providing such immediate value that adoption is an easy decision to make.

As it turns out, mobile point of sale already passed that threshold over the past couple of years.

Although mobile POS proximity payments made up just 0.01 percent of total retail POS volume in 2012, mobile devices (smart phones and tablets) have forever altered the in-store shopping experience, acting as both a payment option and a channel for purchasing, say researchers at Javelin Strategy & Research.

If you have been to an Apple store recently, you know how it works. For Apple, use of mobile POS allows it to change the shopping experience in store. For many smaller retailers, the advantage is the simple ability to accept credit card and debit card payments in non-traditional settings.

Over the next six years, mobile POS proximity payments will reach $5.4 billion by 2018, according to Javelin.

Mobile POS is good for card payment networks, not so good for traditional POS suppliers.

Mobile POS could expand current payment card acceptance by as much as 20 million firms if eligible firms started accepting payments. This could drive up to $1.1 trillion in annual new‐card payments.

Mobile POS Proximity Payments Will Increase 11-Fold

(percent of payment volume)