Chasing Mobile Payments’ Nirvana

Consumers and merchants need to change – That’s the drumbeat and mobile payments players are marching to it. To most experts, this is the core issue, and it’s simple. Mobile payments is a chicken-and-egg problem that just can’t be cracked.

But, what these observers may have not considered is that when confronted with a chicken-and-egg issue, the best way forward may be to dispense with the chicken and the egg altogether. That’s what mobile payments specialist Loop is looking to do, according to the company’s chief technologist George Wallner, with its unique mobile solution that transforms the merchant-consumer experience, while leaving much of the traditional point of sale intact.

With Loop, all consumers need to do to gain the convenience of mobile with the acceptance of a mag-stripe card is update their phone with an accessory. Merchants are then free to devise robust strategies that increase the convenience and savings of these customers, without worrying about the cost of any essential upgrades or alienating any users (Jump to 4:49) .

“With Loop, you can go one user at a time, and have happy users. With a POS upgrade, until it gets over 90 percent, it will always have limited utility and unhappy users,” Wallner told PYMNTS.com in an interview. “Growing one happy user at a time is viable, growing an unhappy base is not.”

Wallner noted that Loop goes beyond simply facilitating mobile payments in the process, illustrating how Loop captures the full spectrum of mobile’s possibilities in an exclusive discussion with PYMNTS.com.

For more on what merchants need to know to start using Loop (Jump to 0:12) , how they can use this capability to increase store visitation (Jump to 5:51) and how Loop is looking to ensure mag-stripe technology’s security issues are resolved (Jump to 8:35) , listen to our full podcast with Wallner or view an exclusive video overview of Loop below.

*If you have trouble with the audio player above, click here.