The future of mobile payment: deep integration with wearable equipment

According to foreign media reports, technology giants such as Apple and Google and payment giants such as MasterCard, Visa and PayPal are now competing in mobile payments in the hope of gaining a bigger share in the emerging market, but smaller, cheaper and less expensive than smartphones Can wearable devices with more biological features be better suited to act as carriers of mobile payments?

The biggest question about the fate of moving around is whether consumers who are accustomed to paying in cash can feel the real convenience, paying through smartphones is clearly hard to motivate consumers to abandon cash payments, and paying with wearable equipment looks more convenient, and conversely, if it's easy enough to wear , it also stimulates more consumers to buy wearable equipment. After adding payment-related functions to wearable equipment, people will gradually recognize the advantages of wearable devices, such as being ready for use, convenience and safety.

Make payment easier

Objectively speaking, not everyone believes that it's easier to take out a mobile phone, unlock it, open a payment application, and then get the payment terminal to read the data at the checkout counter than the traditional way of taking out a wallet or paying cash, but if we just close our wrists to the payment terminal, we can do it. is obviously simpler than the way it is. In terms of pay alone, wearable devices are more time-saving than smartphones, but this is not yet a niche in the ecosystem of mobile payments.

Thanks to the geographic and biological sensors, wearable devices are expected to streamline mobile payments to a single point, which can greatly enhance the payment experience. "Imagine what it would be like to have a supermarket without a checkout counter," said Drew Giovannoli, marketing and Operations manager at Beacon Management Tools, Fosbury, "if all the goods in the supermarket can be scanned and labeled via Bluetooth, Then wearable equipment will be able to automatically complete the corresponding payment process when you choose a good product to leave the store. "In addition, wearable devices are superior to smartphones in the gesture control experience, such as the ability to provide a better store experience."

At the same time, data conversions between wearable devices can transcend the monetary elements required in traditional transactions and incorporate other elements related to the consumer experience (such as loyalty). Disney, for example, recently launched the MagicBand hand ring to greatly simplify the various payment experience of tourists, this bracelet can be linked to the visitor's room number or payment means, and the visitor will be able to complete various payments, including catering, clothing, Souvenirs and bookings, and so on, MagicBand also supports some non-monetary data exchanges, such as tourists wearing the interactive games they can play directly with Disney, the "Magic Express" and the door cards that serve as hotel rooms.

Simplifying the payment step not only helps the wearable device to get consumers ' liking, but also improves its interoperability with other platforms. In Starbucks, for example, it is clear that simplifying the payment process is more important than attracting more customers to the store, and many Starbucks stores have already begun to support the payment by using wearable equipment, such as the Microsoft Hand ring, samsung Galaxy Gear smart watch and Pebble smart watch. Starbucks is also actively cooperating with Third-party vendors, such as docking with Pebble's own payment application Pebblebucks, allowing Pebble users to buy Starbucks ' coffee directly through pebblebucks.

Unique security Protection Features

Security is the biggest concern for most consumers before they use mobile payment methods, especially in the presence of many well-known brands that frequently disclose customer payment data. A recent survey published by Market Research Institute CMB Consumer Pulse found that 73% of respondents thought safety was the biggest obstacle to people's use of mobile wallets, including identity theft, theft of mobile and personal information, interception of personal information when trading, The phone is hacked and the payment service provider is hacked and so on.

However, wearable equipment has many advantages in paying security. First, most wearable devices are equipped with at least one biometric sensor, which can often be used to confirm the true identity of the user, in addition to the widely used fingerprint sensors of Apple and Samsung, as well as equipped with advanced sensors such as Nymi wrist bands that recognize the user's heart rate, The biometric features that these devices read are unique and, of course, able to act as authentication when a user moves to pay.

While many wearable devices on the market need to be used with smartphones to perform all functions, their mobile payments can be completely disconnected from smartphones. Wearable devices not only simplify the payment process, but also enhance the difficulty of hackers to steal personal information from users. Even if the device is lost or stolen, the biometric information it records is not counterfeit, and users can remotely control wearable devices via smartphones or PCs, minimizing personal losses.

Being able to move away from smartphones also means that wearable devices do not have to rely on the support and integration of carriers, so mobile payments do not need to be supported by mobile phone networks, which can also effectively prevent hackers from stealing users ' payment information through the Internet, and further safeguarding the security of mobile payments.

In addition, compared to conspicuous smartphones, wearable equipment is more dominant in appearance, it can be a ring, a bracelet, a button or a necklace and so on, these forms will be less attention to thieves, they may steal a value of 700 dollars of smart phones, For a wearable device of only 80 dollars, it may be difficult to enter the thief's "discernment".

October 2015: NFC Payment era arrives

The October 2015 is the deadline for the upgrading of terminal equipment in the United States, when millions of U.S. businesses will have to buy terminal devices that support EMV technology (which is more secure than the existing magnetic card reader terminals), and for those who do not upgrade their terminals, The responsibility for the possible fraudulent cases is to be borne. It is important to note that the new payment system will also include support for NFC technology, which is supported by a variety of wearable devices in addition to credit cards and mobile phones built into NFC chips. With a total of 220,000 NFC-enabled businesses in the United States, which account for around 24% of the US's 9 million businesses, there is every reason to believe that by 2015, mobile payments will be big in the US, and NFC payments will be at the front.

As the infrastructure needed to move wallets, including smartphones and wearable devices, matures, we will see mobile payments taking on more of the pay market, and Giants in the tech and financial sectors not only compete in the mobile market and wearable markets, At the same time will pay the means of simple flexibility on a showdown, the ultimate beneficiaries of this competition is ordinary consumers, we simply sit down quietly, waiting for simple, safe, convenient "wearable payment era" arrival can be.

Translator: Tangke

(Responsible editor: Mengyishan)