Experts predict retailers will not rush to connect to Google Inc.”™s new Google Wallet mobile payments service, though several chains are already offering the service in the tristate area.
Google Wallet works in conjunction with the PayPass mobile payments service offered by MasterCard, using Citi MasterCard cards or the Google Prepaid Card. Rather than charging a per-transaction fee, Google hopes to make money on the service by allowing companies to advertise to Google Wallet patrons.
Google indicated it has also licensed Visa Inc.”™s payWave wireless checkout system that will in time open Google Wallet to a wider number of shoppers.
CVS and Rite Aid are among a small group of broad-based retailers offering Google Wallet at select locations in Fairfield County and Westchester County, N.Y. Others say they will follow, including Walgreens, Macy”™s, and Milford-based Subway, which has yet to spell out a timeline for its franchisees to offer the service.
Marc Halpert, an electronics payment expert who runs a Fairfield-based consultancy called Your Best Interest L.L.C., said Google Wallet is interesting but he expects few retailers to adopt it right out of the gate, due in part to a recessionary mindset of keeping things simple.
“I think the industry is really going back to the basics,” Halpert said.
For now, Google is working through the basics of the new service itself, offering it as of deadline only on Sprint smartphones. MasterCard”™s system relies on a wireless protocol called Near Field Communication (NFC) that has also been adopted by PayPal for its own mobile payments system on Android smartphones.
In July, Stamford-based Gartner Inc. indicated the mobile payment market is growing slower than expected, citing lack of user demand and the need for a strong business case for retailers. Gartner estimated some 102 million people globally were using mobile payments as of 2010, without releasing U.S. figures.
“Companies are trumpeting the prospects of (NFC) without realizing the complexity of the service model,” said Gartner analyst Sandy Shen, in a statement. “We believe mass market adoption of NFC payments is at least four years away. The biggest hurdle is the need to change user behavior by convincing consumers to pay with mobile phones instead of cash and cards.”
If NFC technology is complex, the process is simple ”“ tap a smartphone on a reader at retail checkout and the phone remits a payment, with the ability to also apply discounts or update consumer loyalty program points.
As a security feature to guard against lost mobile phones, shoppers must punch in a personal identification number before completing a purchase.
