Gartner on mobile payments: 5 key lessons for Retail Banks

A recent report from Gartner on worldwide payment forecasts provides five key lessons for retail banks regarding their approach to mobile payments.

1/ Divert your investments from NFC to alternative solutions

Many observers have raised their concerns that NFC payments would not bring much value to retailers. As Gartner has reduced the predicted value of NFC transactions by more 40 percent throughout the forecast period, retail banks who have entirely focused their mobile payment strategy on contactless now need to start looking for alternate solutions.

2/ (Re)consider money transfer services

Thanks to “its wider availability of services” and “transaction costs that are lower than those of traditional bank services”, money transfers will become more frequent, despite their low values. This is clearly an area where retail banks still have both the legitimacy and the infrastructure to make a difference ahead of the numerous start-ups investing this business.

3/ Focus on customer experience

According to Gartner, it’s the customer experience that is holding back the growth of mobile payments. Customers are already comfortable using traditional online platforms to carry out transactions and may require additional incentives to move to the mobile channel. Retail banks must look beyond the pure mechanics of the transactions and hook customers with value-added services for their smartphones.

4/ Do not be scared of global players

According to Gartner and in accordance with what the market has observed since the beginning of the year, “Google Wallet and Isis are struggling to gain traction”. This is confirmation that retail banks do have an opportunity to successfully launch their own digital wallets and strengthen the relationship with their customers as well as retail partners.

5/ Think of the world with no computers and only mobile phones

Rather than seeing the mobile as simply another channel, the route to success lies in providing real value to customers through mobile. Retail banks should follow the PayPal approach by entirely repositioning every one of their products using the mobile lens. Otherwise, retail banks that fail to innovate in this area risk being usurped by a number of alternative payments providers that are growing both in number and popularity.