Survey finds 350 Percent More Retailers To Adopt NFC Payments By October 2015
By Christine Kern, contributing writer
Mobile POS retailers also set to grow 300 percent in the next two years.
A new survey from Boston Retail Partners has found that the number of retailers who have adopted customer-facing mobile services to enhance the shopping experience will increase 300 percent over the next two years.
The virtual explosion of mobile device usage in the United States has had an indelible impact on how retailers do business and how consumers shop. According to a November 2014 report by comScore, Inc., 182 million people in the U.S. own smartphones, which is a 74.9 percent mobile market penetration.
The study, Mobile Technology–Transforming the Customer Experience, revealed that the number of retailers offering advanced mobile technologies including mobile point-of-sale terminals, geolocation, and proximity payment solutions is set to skyrocket.
The survey asked North American retailers how mobile technology is “changing retail as we know it,” expanding upon BRP’s 2015 POS/Customer Engagement Benchmarking Survey, and was designed to explore how mobile technology is currently shaping retail capabilities, priorities, and processes.
“Mobile technology enables retailers to break down barriers between the digital environment and the physical store,” Boston Retail Partners principal Ken Morris explained in a statement. “Advancements in mobile capabilities are driving retailers to upgrade and replace technology to keep ahead of the competition, and keep up with their very informed, technology-savvy customers.”
Among the survey’s findings is that the number of retailers who will support NFC payments by October of this year will increase by 350 percent. That figure represents good news for ApplePay, the current leader in proximity payment systems in the United States. “In the payments arena, mobile payments could become the next ‘killer app’ for mobile devices, much like what iTunes did for music,” Morris says.
According to the study, the number of retailers using geolocation technologies will triple during the next two years, while 350 percent more retailers will support near-field communication (NFC) payments by October 2015.