The mPOS Retail Makeover

As we travel further along the path toward payments digitalization, there are many mPOS trends sparked along the way that are key in predicting what the payments future holds. This month’s mPOS Tracker Report, in particular, showed that while omnichannel remains an important focus for retailers, many still lack the capabilities to support it. But, surprise, surprise: retailers plan to implement mPOS solutions by 2016, trusting that they will ignite the fire under their omnichannel goals. To get more insight on these trends, MPD CEO Karen Webster spoke with ROAM VP of Marketing Scott Holt, who offered up his take on which markets can be most attributed to mPOS growth, how mPOS is being used as a service opportunity, and why it is ultimately fueling omnichannel strategies for retailers.

KW: The first mPOS Tracker observation that I thought people would find interesting is the growing use of mPOS in developing markets, and specifically what we are seeing in Mexico, to take one example. The idea for a particular provider in Mexico is to use mPOS to enable SMBs that have had neither a banking relationship, nor the ability to accept cards, to have that ability. Is this what you’re seeing, too? 

SH: Yes. And, one of the key emerging areas that we are seeing growth in is India. Our Asia-Pacific region has been working with acquirers over there to help SMBs accept cards, which they previously could not do when they only had traditional POS. The other growth area we are seeing is Southeast Asia, where new use cases are emerging entirely, where they are converting cash-based payments for things like insurance into card-based payments by using mPOS. They can now accept those payments in their homes.

KW: That’s interesting because that takes mPOS out of being just a retail solution to something that is more of a services opportunity for businesses to pursue.

SH: Yes, that’s right, and we’ve been seeing the convergence of many businesses to offer additional services. For insurance, for example, businesses are looking not only to be able to accept payments but also to enable, through the mobile device, a number of other elements of that transaction like the contracts.

KW: That’s an interesting observation. Is that something that ROAM’s platform can enable?

SH: It does. Our platform is built around the core ROAM MCM5, enabling third-party integrations or the ability for us to offer our customers APIs for them to integrate a third-party application. mPOS has reached a point where the standard solution just isn’t cutting it anymore – businesses want to customize it to their needs or integrate it with additional systems, offering them more value.

KW: Let’s talk omnichannel. We’re seeing the use of tablets and devices like that to enable the omnichannel experience for retailers who have specific reasons for wanting to do it, like linebusting to support back-to-school promotions and to experiment with more omnichannel capabilities. How does this reflect with what you are seeing?

SH: Yes, I think especially here in the U.S., where the market is more mature,  we have a lot of interest from retailers in adding mPOS solutions for in-store and out of store experiences. Many retailers are looking at both of those options not only for linebusting and for client servicing. Again, it’s a key part of the business application to go beyond accepting transactions to tie the whole experience together. The other key area is offering the same experience when merchants, especially e-tailers, are offering pop-up stores – we’re seeing more of a desire to use the mPOS as a key part of the whole experience.

KW: I know that ROAM is an enabling platform that provides an easy way to allow the distribution of mPOS solutions. We’ve seen a lot of partnerships announced with card networks and issuing banks. What are you seeing with respect to some of the more popular ways of distributing mPOS solutions around the world?

SH: One of the use cases we’re seeing explode outside of the U.S. are telcos as a distribution channel, not just in terms of selling a reader and a j-hook, but actually playing a part in the merchant services experience and deriving revenue from transactions. We have a number of customers launching worldwide that are making a big push for this – they have an extensive network of customers and the key elements that they need to drive successful mPOS distribution.

KW: How are they acquiring the customers?

SH: So, for the most part, what they’ve realized is that they are sitting on a goldmine of customers anyway. They have a many who are business customers who get their wireless services through them, and now the telcos are playing a bigger part in offering services outside of cellular and hot spots. The natural thing for them to do is to find a way to offer payment acceptance to customers. They have the distribution models for the hardware components, and many are forming new relationships with acquiring partners, white-labeling the platform to be the merchant service provider as well. They have the infrastructure for customer service, billing, and more, and it’s the absolute perfect compliment. This is happening in mature and emerging markets, but the U.S. in particular has not yet picked up on it.

KW: That’s certainly logical, very complimentary, and potentially very disruptive to other players in the space. But wrapping up, I’d like to get caught up on the latest and greatest in what ROAM is doing. Bring us up to date.

SH: So, we have a lot of new things happening. We’re continuing to grow, especially now being part of Ingenico. We’re expanding our footprint internationally, and will be announcing our expansion to new countries in coming weeks. One of our big announcements will come in October, the latest generation of our application with a big upgrade and some really cool features. In addition to that, we’re continuing to expand our developer and ISB programs.

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