Mobile is The New Payment Reality..

In Retail, while some predictions make tremendous headway, some take more time to progress. Mobile is such a case that made a slow and steady progress in the retail space. About 2-3 years ago, it all started with rumblings about mobile commerce and mobile POS and their potential use cases.
It has been a long time since then but I personally believe that mobility is finally coming to fruition.
Mobile is now, one of the top priorities for most of the retailers in the areas of marketing, commerce and in-store payments.
After the data breaches that we have recently witnessed from the notable retailers like Target and Neiman Marcus, tying payments with mobile is the new trend that promises to secure the customer data more aptly. It is indeed safe to presume that Mobile is the new payment reality.

Some of the key indicators in the mobile payment space
- There is a growing acceptance of Apple Pay, NFC, Google Wallet and other apps. This is a key sign that consumers will continue to use their smartphones as a research and payment tool  
- There is no clear winner in the mobile payment yet. Everyone’s talking about Apple Pay but it seems as though the great mobile payment race will turn into a group activity. Because customers have different preferences and mobile devices, there is no ‘either-or’ approach. The norm moving forward is that retailers are going to offer a variety of different mobile payment options — much like how we have and use four or five different credit cards.
- Lots of M&A activities are heating up the mobile payment space; the latest being the Google-Softcard acquisition rumors. Companies like McDonald's, Subway and Jamba Juice use Softcard as their core mobile payment solutions. So looking at this rumor overall, it seems like both Softcard and Google only can benefit from the deal. Softcard will receive some financial backing and a great name to help boost brand awareness. Google, on the other hand, will be able to increase the potential customer based of its own mobile offerings, allowing it to compete more effectively with Apple Pay.
-With the immense mobile opportunities, Small and medium enterprises now can better compete with their larger counterparts.With mobile payment solutions, even SMBs have the chance to give consumers more options and send them more relevant coupons and offers.