Greetings from EPCA- The most important event about payments in Europe

Different purses and wallets have been a hot topic for ages - also in EPCA. They’ve been discussed in media, by mobile operators and naturally, in addition to the biggest banks, the most influential companies like Google and Amazon have joined the game. According to some estimates, solely in Europe, there are about 300 projects, which aim at enabling mobile payments.

Does this make any sense? There cannot be many winners. There certainly are as many guestimates about the winner as there are horses in the race. If the world repeats itself (as it usually does), we end up in a situation where every wallet has its own user base and an online retailer is forced to offer all possible options to ensure that consumers find their preferred option to pay.

Then, who would benefit most from the creation of mobile wallets? At the moment, the most used wallets are basicly retailers’ own apps, which offer genuine added value to consumers. In Starbucks wallet there’s, in addition to payment possibility, a map to help one find the nearest Starbucks, opening hours, loyalty programs, offers and so on. If the app features would be restricted in paying, I doubt anyone would use it.

What about the consumer point of view? Of course it would be great to carry all 40 loyalty programs in my phone but I really need only five of them. I’d rather have five retailer specific apps which would bring me some genuine added value in their own context.

Perhaps paying isn’t the core of wallets. Instead paying is the necessary evil which is part of shopping but which should be as invisible and easy as possible. Perhaps it’s time for online retailers to start thinking about how to strengten customer relationship through apps and, at the same time, offer a possibility to buy more with less effort. From this point of view, traditional payment institutions, such as banks, will be left as background players and the winners will be those developers who know how to include available payment solutions as part of mobile apps.

There are numerous players whose business should be taken into account in the value chain of mobile wallets. I would put my money on someone who is able to make buying as a seemless part of any application, regardless of device, developer of the app or payment method.