28 December 2012
This monthly report is designed to organize the mobile point of sale ecosystem, one that has emerged over the last several years as smartphones and tablets deliver new point of sale acceptance capabilities for all categories of merchants. This report provides an initial overview of those players who have entered this space, including a description of their capabilities, solution features and functions and customer and go to market priorities. This report organizes the ecosystem into two broad categories: those merchant-facing organizations who supply devices to merchants directly and those who “power” those players and supply them with the MPOS hardware, software, tools and services that helps merchant-facing organizations meet their customer needs.
We began in October by evaluating 16 players and 6 “powered by” suppliers. Merchant-facing organizations include: Ezetap, Groupon, GoPago, Intuit, iZettle, mPowa, NCR Silver, PayAnywhere, PayPal Here, Sage, ShopKeep, Square, Vantiv, VeriFone SAIL and ViSalus. “Powered by” suppliers include Anywhere Commerce, FiServ SpotPay, ID TECH, MagTek, Roam, and SAIL (that ends up in both categories given its go to market strategy.
Our November edition adds seven players to the MPOS Pyramid™ and three “powered by” suppliers. New merchant facing organizations include: VeriFone’s GlobalBay, LightSpeed, Mobile Pay on Demand, MSwipe, O2, Pentagon, Retail Cloud, and SumUp. The “powered by” suppliers include CreditCall, SwiffPay and Pentagon. Of the original 16 players, six profiles were updated and one “powered by” supplier was updated. Key findings from the month include: new entrants seem to enter the market with more functionality; more evidence that MPOS solutions are moving “up market” so that larger merchants can use them to create new customer experiences; and there is a lot of activity outside of the US – in both Europe and Asia. Download the full report below for more details.
In a podcast with Karen Webster, CEO of Market Platform Dynamics, ROAM CEO Ken Paull discussed some of the most relevant changes in the MPOS landscape in the past month. According to Paull, there is a spike in both consumer and merchant demand in the market and many new players are jumping in to meet this demand. “Part of this trend is the fact that this technology is making it easier for new players to adapt their programs and go after their customers. We also see a trend where MPOS is moving up market to the tier one merchants,” he said. To listen to the entire podcast please click here.
Our December edition adds four players to the MPOS Pyramid™ and two “powered by” suppliers. New merchant-facing organizations include: Adyen Shuttle, Corduro, SalesVu and Swish. The “powered by” suppliers are CHARGE Anywhere and MRL POSnet. In addition, six merchant-facing profiles were updated: Intuit, iZettle, Payleven, Shopkeep, Square and SumUp. One “powered by” supplier was updated: Anywhere Commerce.
The big takeaway this month? Simply turning a phone or tablet into a secure point of sale is no longer enough. Even small merchants want and need other capabilities that enrich their business. Find out what else we learned by downloading the full report below.
Also this month, MPD CEO Karen Webster got the chance to chat with ROAM’s CEO Ken Paull about VeriFone’s MPOS troubles. According to Paull, the problem lies not with micro-merchant acquiring, but rather with VeriFone’s business strategy, and it’s decision to try and “be everything to everyone.” Check out the interview here.
It is worth noting that this ecosystem is moving quickly and this report is by no means complete. Information about these players is available in varying degrees of completeness. Details about volumes and shipments – the information that everyone finds most valuable – is not publicly available. We plan to update this report on a monthly basis to include new entrants, and updates on the players profiled in the prior month’s report. We are also in the process of compiling and will report out aggregated information about shipments and volumes. We encourage you to contact us at mobilepos@pymnts.com if you would like to be included in this report and/or would like us to update your information as we have presented it.
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