Why mPOS is No Exception to the Apple Pay Effect

Welcome to the new monthly mPOS Tracker, a PYMNTS Special Report sponsored by ROAM. In this report, we rank the players that we track, and score these players based on numbers and types of devices used, geographies where solutions are implemented, the number of payment types accepted, and more.

This month’s report examines how the Apple Pay launch has had an impact on every facet of the payments landscape, not excluding mPOS. Merchants are working to incorporate Apple Pay into their existing platforms, investigating hardware options to support NFC. For example, retail platform Bindo, which brings mobile commerce, e-commerce and in-store sales together with a customer facing marketplace app, launched a contactless reader that enables both EMV and Apple Pay.

In addition, Apple Pay’s in-app payments method is triggering payments with one click inside of an app. Some restaurants and QSRs are therefore looking into solutions that enable Apple Pay inside of other payments apps (e.g. OpenTable or PayPal). This, suggests MPD CEO Karen Webster, could open up a new segment of “payments aggregator” that serves as an intermediary between Apple Pay, the consumer, and the merchant.

Others players that made mPOS headlines include Macy’s and Bloomingdales, both of which announced plans to roll out new mPOS terminals to improve in-store shopping, engage customers, offer merchandise ideas and speed up transactions. Meanwhile, small and mid-sized merchants are continuing to embrace tablet solutions, and over the next 5 years, it is estimated that more than a third of all merchant terminals in the US will be “mPOS-esque,” says Webster.

Those who scored the highest this month were those whose platforms enable a variety of capabilities and functionalities – they have the greatest ability to support many retailers and fully monetize the mPOS ecosystem. Those players are: PayPal Here, Kalixa pro, GoPago, Adyen Shuttle, Vexilor from Givex, Creditcall, and ROAM. Five new players joined the mPOS pyramid this month: Apriva, Coiney, M+, Mandiri, and Moka. We also provided updates to five players: Bindo, Clip, goSwiff, ID Tech, and Square.

Here are the three key takeaways for this month:

1) Apple Pay comes to mPOS. Apple Pay is fueling interest on the part of smaller mPOS centric merchants who don’t want to miss out on the chance to serve the Apple Pay customer.
2) Apple Pay could innovate how mPOS players accept it. Until the hardware catches up with the smaller merchant, it’s possible we’ll see aggregators who leverage the in-app capabilities of Apple Pay to transact at the physical point of sale.
3) mPOS is moving closer to becoming just POS. The commoditization of POS hardware, combined with the robustness of mPOS platforms and the merchant’s desire to accommodate check out wherever the consumer wants to transact, will eventually shift mPOS from being something in addition to POS to being, just POS.

For a more detailed look at the ratings and rankings, click the download button below for a full copy of this month’s report.

THE MPOS PYRAMID OCTOBER 2014