Google Expected to Win Mobile Wallet Wars, Study Finds

A new survey released yesterday by ACI Worldwide found that the majority of retail professionals involved said Google would beat out PayPal and Isis in the mobile wallet wars.

Global payments provider ACI Worldwide released the results of a survey it conducted this month showing that retail professionals think Google will win the "mobile wallet wars" over competitors PayPal and Isis. More than half (53%) of the 225 people surveyed at this month's National Retail Federation annual conference expect Google will come out on top of the heap.

PayPal received 25% of the vote and Isis came out with only 4% of the vote. But 19% of those polled said that there is still room for a new entrant to come in and take on a dominant role in the mobile wallets market. Nearly a third (32%) of the respondents said they think the entrance of new mobile wallet providers will be the most impactful development in retail payments over the next 12-18 months.

Acceptance of mobile payments seems set to grow in 2013 as 83% of the survey's respondents said they expect the rate of implementation of contactless POS terminals to increase this year compared to last. But the respondents also noted several barriers to mobile payments adoption, with the highest number (44%) citing lack of common standards as the biggest barrier to adoption. The respondents were also asked the biggest risk they saw in mobile payments adoption , with 43% saying that customer privacy protection was their biggest worry, followed by increased fraud with 25% of the vote.

EMV migration also seemed to weigh heavily on the minds of the retail professionals, as EMV migration was expected to be the most impactful development in retail payments over the next 12-18 months by 28% of those polled. The majority of them (56%) said that retailers were either "unprepared" or "very unprepared" for the upcoming EMV deadlines in 2013 and 2014.

"Simply stated we are at an inflection point as retailers face pressure to implement mobile payment strategies, meet EMV migration deadlines and comply with PCI data security standards," ACI's Jeff Hale, senior vice president of retail payments, said of the concerns voiced in the survey in a statement released by ACI.

Jonathan Camhi has been an associate editor with Bank Systems & Technology since 2012. He previously worked as a freelance journalist in New York City covering politics, health and immigration, and has a master's degree from the City University of New York's Graduate School ... View Full Bio