Rewards Paramount for Successful Mobile Wallets: Report

A recent report form Aite Group also says that user experience is a key factor.

Mobile payment providers should ensure that the user experience and loyalty or reward programs are paramount in their products in order to incentivize consumers to leave behind traditional payment instruments and adopt mobile money, says a recent report from Boston-based Aite Group.

The report, "Mobile Goes Money," examines the digital wallet ecosystem and the early successes and challenges facing mobile wallets. The research is based on more than 20 interviews with executives and product managers within the financial technology industry from February to April 2014.

In addition to a focus on UX and rewards programs, Aite determined that mobile telephone carriers should consider offering merchants consumer analytics by collecting and storing data and invest in partnerships with loyalty and reward providers to attract consumers to their platform.

Further, aggregators for white label applications should begin developing NFC-based payment systems, since card-present status and reduced liability will continue to be attractive to merchants, Aite advised.

Bryan Yurcan is associate editor for Bank Systems and Technology. He has worked in various editorial capacities for newspapers and magazines for the past 8 years. After beginning his career as a municipal and courts reporter for daily newspapers in upstate New York, Bryan has ... View Full Bio