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Mobile Payments like Apple Pay and Google Wallet will Take Off!

There was a day and age when consumers were nervous about making a purchase over the Internet…then their mobile phones…and today, mobile wallets. We use our smartphones for everything and it may be hard for some to imagine, but our wallets are next. As a consumer, I’d love to be able to ditch my wallet and only carry my smartphone, and I’m not alone. Male consumers today love the idea of not having to carry a wallet that’s bursting at the seams like the iconic, histrionic George Costanza’s wallet in Seinfeld, and women love the idea of having one less thing in their purses.

Fortunately, Apple Pay and Google Wallet are here. Many large corporations are already adopting Apple Pay or developing a plan for it because they know it’s the future. It hasn’t completely taken over yet, but the 800-pound gorilla (Apple) is here to stay and will continue to dump money into its product until it is widespread. Small businesses that adopt this new technology sooner rather than later will reap the same benefits as large corporations. It’s not a question of whether or not mobile wallets will take off, but when.

Mobile wallets do more than just accept payments and provide consumer convenience, they help the business owner too. Today’s consumer, more than ever before is cost comparing online; they want and expect deals and special treatment. They want loyalty points for spending, “buy 9 get one free” rewards, and other ways to save money. Businesses know this and they tend to invest a lot of money in membership, punch and loyalty cards to show their customers that they are valued. What they don’t realize is that their customers are carrying around their card plus 50 other cards from other business, all of which they inevitably forget to use. Consumers have lost the feeling of being valued and it’s not because business owners don’t appreciate their business. The amount of credit cards, debit cards, membership cards, punch cards, loyalty cards, gift cards and prepaid cards is out of control. It’s unlikely that consumers will continue to carry around all these cards but what they will carry is their smartphone. Fortunately, mobile wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet can take care of the rest.

Mobile wallets have the ability to track loyalty points and rewards, and deliver a lot of valuable metrics to the business owner. Mobile wallets can tell a business owner who their customers are, whether or not they are loyal, and alert them if they are losing customers. Instead of shooting blind implementing marketing strategies they think might work, business owners can use mobile wallet metrics to more accurately measure their Return on Investment (ROI). Everything they need to know about their customers is sitting on their smartphones, and developing a plan to initiate a mobile wallet system for your business is the first step to accessing this information.

Mobile Wallets like Apple Pay and Google Wallet are poised to take off, and business owners that choose not to take advantage of this technology now will find themselves left behind. The features and benefits available in mobile wallets are efficient and user-friendly, and consumers are begging for them. At Bluume, we walk our clients through the various mobile wallet options available today, providing clarity and understanding of this technology. Once you add a mobile wallet system, you’ll wonder why you hesitated to streamline your business operations in this smart and simple way.

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