Payment apps
Since the introduction of Apple Pay many strive to introduce me-too apps not to be left behind. Whereas Apple hardly ever is first, they focus to improve on the user experience making their products an instant success.
What’s to beat?
MasterCard and Visa’s chip cards - wave close to the payment terminal - done
Apple Pay - wave close to the payment terminal with thumb on home button - done
Apple Watch - wave close to the payment terminal pressing the lower side button - done
Kerv ring and other chip in a product - wave close to the payment terminal - done
In recent months many new apps have seen the light of life but fail badly on the user experience:
Start-up smartphone, start-up app, wave in front of payment terminal, confirm to pay
start-up smartphone, start-up app, scan QR code, enter amount, confirm to pay, wait for cashier to confirm he received payment
start-up smartphone, start-up app, swipe screen to display barcode, have the cashier scan the code on your smartphone, press ok on payment terminal
Being technically interested I would try most of these apps. Would I continue to use them in the long term? No. What I am looking for in a new means of paying for a purchase is simplicity. Simplicity that beats cash and waiting for change, simplicity that beats credit cards with entering PIN code or signing payment slips.
Anyone not able to offer the vertical integration and simplicity of Apple Pay should focus their apps not to replace a PayWave or PayPass card - their ease of use is hard to beat - but to add value to executing / managing the payment, card, balance and reward programs.
Offer a chip in a product to simply wave in front of the payment terminal - finger ring, key ring, strap on a watch, chip on a strap, chip in smartphone case, chip in SIM slot 2, chip in a sticker to add to whatever.
Offer notifications or SMS alert of any usage of that payment chip
Offer to temporarily or permanently block/disable that payment chip within your standard smartphone banking app
Offer to temporarily switch the base currency of that chip - allowing travelers on vacation to pay in local currency avoiding bad conversion rates of some local banks
Offer to switch the card assigned to that chip on the fly allowing the client to take advantage of multiple cards and multiple rewards programs
Offer to automatically allocate payments/transactions by that chip to cards based on rules set-up by the client
Add IF integration











