organizing the mobile point of sale ecosystem | november 2013 · tis’ the season to get shopping...

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Organizing the Mobile Point of Sale Ecosystem | November 2013 Ecosystem Analysis

This report has added three new players to the MPOS Pyramid™ and offered new

insight into the range of players and services entering the space.

The big takeaway: The holiday shopping season will show customers the strength

and benefits of mPOS.

The November 2013 MPOS Tracker™

Tis’ the season to get shopping and mPOS solutions will certainly be one of the elves that helps retailers more efficiently manage customers in their storefronts.

For example, COACH recently announced that its mPOS solutions are now available at many Coach stores and outlets in the United States. Its New York store features two ‘unobstrusive’ cash registers and mPOS systems, and plans to arm retail associates with iPad minis in the near future. The specialty retailer, Alex and Ani, reported that their mPOS solutions have enabled their rapid expansion given the ease with which their mPOS platform can enable solutions critical to their operations: inventory management, CRM, and linebusting. They also reported that during peak times, wait times of up to an hour and half to check out was reduced to less than 15 minutes.

This is also the season to take stock on the state of play in this rapidly evolving industry. A new whitepaper from Mobey Forum projects that mPOS devices will reach a 46% market penetration by 2017, up from the 17% share that it holds today. They also released data on what office functions merchants are looking for from their mPOS payments provider. The top categories are: accounting and reporting, customer management and communications and business reporting and analytics which are closely tied to business management and processes. Retailers were most interested in accounting, inventory management and CRM applications.

Their report also raised several issues related to a topic of conversation in this space and that is the potential to shift the balance of power as a result of mPOS solutions and the introduction of the many new players with ambitions to launch new networks and payments schemes, e.g. MCX, PayPal, etc. converge. Their conclusion is that the ISOs and processors have the most to lose as the former is disintermediated and the latter is commoditized. They’re right. They go on to say that networks and issuers are also at risk given potential pressures to reduce interchange pricing. Should that happen, issuers will clearly have a lot to lose. But, networks, will likely emerge unscathed as long as mPOS solutions ride the network rails. Is it possible that networks could lose volume if third party players shift transactions to ACH? Possibly, but that will depend on how the networks decide to play with these emerging networks and offer enough of a pricing incentive to convince them to give up their efforts to get consumers to switch. mPOS solutions were created to enable consumers with existing cards to use them at merchants that either didn’t accept them or who wanted a more robust, cloud-based solution at a lower cost. That is what has ignited these solutions and why there are so many of them in the market. They have not had to overcome the typical “chicken and egg” issues associated with launching new payments systems.

A Monthly Update on the State of the Mobile Point of Sale Ecosystem

A PYMNTS.com Report Sponsored by ROAM

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And, finally, this is also the season to find new friends. mPOS is finding new friends with FIs of all shapes and sizes as they embrace mPOS as a tool for acquiring and keeping small businesses and recouping lost revenue by offering a portfolio of services that can be organized around this solution including lending, depository relationships, etc. Banks may actually be one of the few enterprises that small businesses see and interact with on a regular basis by the very nature of who they are and what they do, and are used to dealing with these businesses on a consultative basis. Adding mPOS solutions to the mix as a distribution channel seems a natural extension of their service, as well as an incremental revenue opportunity.

The key takeaways for November include:

The mPOS market will increase in 2014 but the number of players will likely diminish. As mPOS continues to move from being simply a reader and card processing tool to integrated tablet solutions, the size of the market will only increase. However, there will have to be some consolidation as players that only provide dongles and card processing will be overtaken by those with card accepting capabilities as well as specific solutions that address a vertical market’s needs. These vertical markets won’t be large enough to support multiple players given thin margins and the relatively small size of many of these vertical markets. The market will, therefore, be forced to consolidate around a small number of players that can either provide specific solutions to a vertical market or platforms that can enable a variety of verticals with APIs and SDKs that make it efficient for specialized third parties to provide services to the platform.

mPOS winners will make payment less important than solution components that surround it. A year ago, mPOS was all about the payment. Today mPOS is all about the value added components that help small and large businesses run their businesses that are powered by the solutions that enable card acceptance. Payment remains a core piece of functionality, of course, but decisions made by businesses on mPOS providers will be driven by what surrounds the payment – the front and back office operations that are increasingly enabled by payment. .

mPOS solutions providers will partner up with some unlikely channels to create distribution. mPOS solutions providers are looking to partners with access to businesses as well as a “consultative” sales approach. Since mPOS solutions are increasingly more about the value added services around payment, which is also what creates more attractive mPOS economics, providers will seek those who have the trust, creditiblity and demonstrable skills that help busineses buy the solution that works for their business, not simply be sold a piece of hardware and card processing.

November 2013 report features three new players to the MPOS Pyramid. The new merchant facing players are Move and Pay and POGO> and one supplier, Cardflight. In addition, we’ve updated ten players from prior months. They include the following merchant facing players Clip, JUSP, NCR Silver, Payleven, Square, Spire/Thales, Vantiv and three suppliers: ROAM, Anywhere Commerce and Infinite Peripherals.

The MPOS Organizing Methodology: The MPOS TrackerTM Pyramid The organizing framework for the MPOS ecosystem is the MPOS PYRAMID™. It’s a graphic representation of where we think merchant facing service providers fit in the market. As stated earlier, it’s not designed to suggest that one part of the pyramid is better than another; but rather to depict the characteristics of MPOS solutions. That means that the tip of the MPOS PYRAMID™ doesn’t imply the “best” it simply implies that the fewest players are concentrated there given the various elements of the service offering that those merchant facing players provide to their merchants.

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MPOS PYRAMIDTM Methodology We have divided the MPOS market into “layers” representing the broad set of capabilities included in the MPOS service offerings. This, we hope, more easily helps to categorize the MPOS ecosystem by focusing on the capabilities that the various players who serve the merchants in this market offer them. The “powered by” players are organized on the outside of the MPOS PYRAMID™ and aligned with the appropriate capabilities that they “power” inside of the pyramid.

Here’s how we have used the MPOS PYRAMID™ to organize the MPOS sector.

Core. Players in this quadrant offer only the basic hardware/ card reader solutions to merchants that enable mag stripe card acceptance and merchant processing services. Players in this space also have provided some level of security encryption, although the level of security varies by powered-by provider. This is where many players enter the market to establish an MPOS presence and merchant base.

Core + Back Office. Players in this quadrant have offerings that provide value-added solutions that enable merchants and other SMBs to perform important back office functions. These functions include tracking/managing inventory, creating invoices, integrating with accounting systems and/or other applications that assist merchants and SMBs in managing their back office.

Core + Front Office. Players in this quadrant have offerings that provide value-added solutions that enable merchants and other SMBs to perform important customer-facing functions. These functions include loyalty, marketing, CRM and advertising solutions that enable merchants and SMBs to more fully manage support marketing, sales and customer retention activities.

Core + Front and Back Office. Players in this quadrant have offerings that provide value-added solutions that enable merchants and other SMBs to support both front and back office functions as described above.

Merchant/Consumer Network. Players in this quadrant have offerings that leverage mobile technology to serve both the merchant/SMB and consumer. These players provide core + front and back office capabilities along with consumer-facing applications such as digital wallets. These players use mobile devices and other assets on both the consumer and merchant side to create a network enabled by mobile devices (phones and tablets) and relevant applications.

Open Platform/API. Merchant-facing players in this layer are serving merchants directly but have also made a decision to open their hardware/software services to developers via APIs. This is an effort to expand the number of merchants/SMB’s that they can reach as well as to make it easier for their own solutions to be enriched by other developers who can add functionality to the core offer.

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MPOS Player Profiles | New for November 2013

Move and Pay

Category Core

When Launched November 2013 #Customers/volume n/a Customer Focus Non card accepting merchants

Geographic Coverage Italy

Pricing

n/a

Setefi, the mobile payment subsidiary of Italian bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, recently launched its Move and Pay Business mobile POS. The reader is certified by Visa, MasterCard and the Bancomat Consortium and connects to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. It is also equipped with contactless technology and may be used with iOS and Android devices. Mobile network operator Vodafone Italia has joined forces with Setefi to enable card acceptance for merchants by including an offer to purchase a tablet or smartphone from Vodafone.

http://www.vodafone.it/

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Pogo>

Category Core When Launched November 2013 #Customers/volume n/a Customer Focus Small and medium sized businesses,

Geographic Coverage Hong Kong

Pricing n/a

First Data and MasterCard launched Pogo> to enable card acceptance remotely and via web-enabled mobile devices or tablets. The device features EMV Level 2 security and will be distributed by First Data Merchant Solutions, First Data’s direct-to-market merchant acquiring business. The insurance firm, The Prudential Insurance Company Limited Hong Kong is the first enterprise client and will be launching the solution across its agency to offer customers additional choice and convenience.

MPOS Suppliers | New for November 2013

CardFlight

Category When Launched May 2013 #Customers/volume n/a Customer Focus Vertical Solution Developers

Geographic Coverage United States

Pricing n/a

CardFlight provides the tools and infrastructure for mobile application developers and enterprises to incorporate mobile payment acceptance without the typical complexity of a payments integration. Developers use CardFlight's encrypted mag stripe reader and SDK/API to easily and securely accept card present payments in their apps, with support for virtually any payment processor or merchant account. CardFlight's integrated payment gateway supports 23 different payment processors. The solution provides a flexible mobile POS solution that can be integrated into existing back office, CRM, inventory management, fulfillment, reporting and analytics.

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MPOS Merchant Facing Players | November 2013 Updates

Clip

Category Core When Launched May 2013 #Customers/volume Volume less than $5M annually Customer Focus All merchants in Spanish speaking territories

Geographic Coverage Mexico for launch

Pricing 3.6% per swipe

Update: Clip announced a new $1.7 million funding round in the form of a convertible note with Alta Ventures, one of Mexico's leading VCs, and an undisclosed existing investor. Also, the company released a new product, Mensualidades, allowing Clip merchants to offer payments in up to 12 installments. This will make larger purchases possible for customers. According to Clip, payments in installments allows merchants to close more sales and sell more high ticket products and currently, only large retailers can offer this service. In addition, an alliance with American Express Mexico was announced and now American Express Card is Clip's official card.

JUSP

Category Core When Launched April 2013 #Customers/volume 400 beta customers Customer Focus All sized merchants

Geographic Coverage Europe

Pricing

2.5% per transaction and €39 + VAT for the card reader

Update: JUSP released a new pricing model described as "all-inclusive dynamic pricing" designed for larger merchants. For larger merchants who make up the core of the retail environment with annual sales between 20kEUR and 70kEUR, JUSP now offers a monthly fee option, with no merchant commission on any transaction. The monthly fee ranges between 39EUR and 69EUR per month, depending on the quantity of mPOS monthly sales. It can change from month-to-month to cater for bursts of seasonal sales without any penalty. The company has also released a Windows app example.

http://www.altaventures.com/

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NCR Silver

Category Core + Back + Front When Launched June 2012 #Customers/volume More than 30,000 mobile app installed Customer Focus Small Businesses

Geographic Coverage United States, Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, Jamaica, St. Lucia, Trinidad & Tobago and the U.S. Virgin Island

Pricing

Full hardware package is $499 a month to connect a mobile device. First device is $79/month and additional are up to $29/month. ($.10 per transaction up to $29)

Update: The company announced a new release of its POS system for iPad with new features. NCR Silver now supports multiple locations and can scale to meet needs of cafes, restaurants, bars and small businesses that are expanding. Owners can have more control with user roles like Cashier or Manager and assign roles. A time clock feature was added. Also, Sprint and Vantiv announced they have launched a tablet based POS system that will be powered by NCR Silver.

Payleven

Category Core + Open When Launched June 2012 #Customers/volume 1,000 Merchants in Berlin for TRIAL Customer Focus All Merchants

Geographic Coverage Germany, Austria, The UK, Italy, Brazil, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain and Belgium

Pricing 2.75%

Update: Payleven announced a Europe-wide partnership with Ingram Micro, a wholesale distributor of IT products. payleven’s Chip & PIN card reader will be now widely distributed by Ingram Micro in eight European markets: Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, Italy, Belgium, the UK, Spain and Poland. The company also announced a loyalty program. It is a digital version of the well-known loyalty bonus stamp cards and integrated into the Payleven app, enabling small and medium-sized businesses to create individual loyalty programs and corresponding campaigns. In addition, it provides merchants with an insight into consumer spending and gives merchants the opportunity to interact with customers.

Square

Category Network When Launched February 2009 #Customers/volume $15B per year Customer Focus All Merchants

Geographic Coverage US, Canada, Japan

Pricing $275/month or 2.75% per swipe and 3.25% in Japan

Update: Square announced they are eliminating the flat monthly fee for merchants, who must all pay a per-swipe fee of 2.75% similar to the major credit card processors. The company also unveiled a brand new design for Square Register, the complete point-of-sale solution. The design’s refined aesthetic introduces a smoother, more intuitive

https://squareup.com/register

https://squareup.com/register

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experience for both merchants and their customers, and optimizes for efficiency, simple customization and ease-of-use. It also provides a consistent experience across Android and iOS 7, and with Square web dashboard, Square’s back office solution. Spire/Thales

Category Core

When Launched 2013 #Customers/volume n/a Customer Focus Financial and Retail Outlets

Geographic Coverage UK, Spain

Pricing

n/a

Update: Spire and Thales released new details on their partnership for mPOS solution. PosMate™Smart from Spire is a chip and PIN mPOS terminal that allows merchants to accept card payments securely in a mobile environment by connecting to any smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth. PosMate™Smart is certified to EMV level 1 and 2 and compliant to PCI PTS 2.0 SRED, delivering the same security as familiar in-store point of sale terminals. The Thales payShield HSM is specifically designed to support all forms of card based transactions and includes enhanced support for key management for mPOS terminals and encryption of cardholder data. Vantiv

Category Core + Back + Front When Launched June 2012 #Customers/volume The corporation serves over 400,000 merchant locations Customer Focus Small Businesses

Geographic Coverage United States

Pricing

n/a

Updat: Vantiv launched a tablet-based, cloud-connected point-of-sale system with Sprint that is powered by NCR Silver. Vantiv Mobile Checkout aims to make it easier and more affordable for businesses to transition from traditional cash registers and manual processes to the latest integrated technology. The all-in-one solution is available through the Sprint business sales channel and offers the ability to track sales and profitability, analyze and report on customer trends, manage inventory, market to customers and process sales on site or on location with secure payment processing. The solution includes the tablet, wireless connectivity, encrypted card reader, tablet stand, cash drawer and countertop receipt printer, with scanners, Bluetooth printers and other retail accessories also available.

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MPOS Supplier Update

ROAM:

ROAM and Ingenico announced they are launching a mobile payment service in eight countries, known as the “ROAM Mobile commerce Manager” (ROAM MCM5). Merchants will be able to bring intelligence to each client payment experience whether ordering, purchasing or communicating after the purchases. The ROAM MCM5 was designed for mCommerce service providers and built for EMV. They also announced the launch of its next-generation mobile card reader technology, the G5X. The technology includes data encryption and protective measures, as well as a dual-track, multi-card type magnetic stripe reader. The G5X secure mobile card reader is the first and only magnetic stripe mobile card reader in the world to obtain Visa Ready certification, for the reader to meet all of Visa’s latest requirements for secure payment acceptance.

Anywhere Commerce:

Launched an updated version of their mPOS device, Nomad 2.0. Nomad 2.0 is designed to flexibly support multiple card-present payment method options, including debit, credit, gift and loyalty card transactions through both magnetic stripe technology and EMV Chip-and-PIN functionalities. The device employs patented encryption technology, and provides the option to connect to a mobile device through secure Bluetooth or a USB port. Nomad 2.0 is compatible with Android, iOS, Windows 8.1, and Windows Phone 8 operating systems.

Infinite Peripherals:

Introduced the first mPOS device that is compatible with the iPad mini, the Infinea Tab M. This product was launched in direct response to continuing retailer migration to mPOS.

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Appendix | All mPOS Tracker Player by Classification

Core Back Front Back + Front

Open Back + Open

Front + Open

Network

Aasaanpay AEON Banco Sabadell BlueBamboo CHERRY Circle it Up Clip CommBank Pi Dialog Estel EverPay Flint iKaaz iPay IVeri mPress JUSP Mint Mosambee Move and Pay Mswipe MTS POS O2 pay@mobile Payleven Pay-Me Russia PagSeguro Payment Pebble PayPocket PayTooSwipe Punto PocketPOS Pogo> Softspace S-Pay Mobile Spire/Thyron Swish Vantiv Visalus Vwalla! Mobile Pay WorldPay YES Bank

2Can Adyen Chase Checkout Cube Ezetap I Love Velvet Intuit Gopayment PayAnywere RevCOIN Sage Payments

Citibank Corduro GlobalBay GoPago Groupon Koupah MRL Posnet Punchey Mobile Pay On Demand Revel

eMobilePOS Kalixia Pro KWI Cloud9 Leaf Lightspeed NCR Next Gen Dine NomadPOS PaySimple payPLUS Retail Cloud Sales Vu ShopKeep Spark Pay Wallmob

Handpoint iZettle Monitise Miura Shuttle Mpowa Payleven QFPay Visa mPOS Swiffpay

Payfirma Square PayPal Here SumUp

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Key – Bold Italics is new to the pyramid as of November 2013

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MPOS Pricing (updated as of November 31, 2013)

Player Pricing

2Can 2.75% of each transaction

AEON Bt 2,000 for the reader

Adyen €10/month Processing fee varies between 1.60% - 3.95%

BlueBamboo n/a

Chase Checkout Per swipe price based on Paymentech merchant account, card reader is free

Circle It Up n/a CHERRY n/a Citibank n/a Clip n/a Cloud9 n/a

Corduro Varies, 2.5% per swipe and manual is 2.9% + $.20

CommBank Pi n/a

Cube 2.5% per swipe or 3.5% per key-in card information or integration into existing merchant account

Dialog n/a eMobilePOS n/a Estel n/a EverPay n/a Ezetap Total package less than $50 Flint 1.95% - 2.95% + $0.20/charge GlobalBay n/a GoPago 2.85% plus $0.10 on transactions under $12

Groupon Swiped 1.8% + $0.15 per transaction, Keyed 2.3% plus $0.15 per transaction

Handpoint 2.65% per transaction and £9.99 or 1990 ISK monthly fee

I Love Velvet n/a iKaaz n/a iPay n/a

Intuit GoPayment $12.95/month and 1.75% swipe and 2.75% entered or 2.75% swipe, 3.75% keyed without monthly fee

iZettle 2.75% for MC and Diner’s Club or 2.95% for AMEX

JUSP 2.5% per transaction and �39 + VAT for the card reader

Kalixia Pro n/a

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Koupah 2.69% + $.03 per transaction KWI n/a Lightspeed $1,098-$3,875 per program for one license Miura Shuttle n/a Mobile Pay On Demand 2.7%/swipe or 3.5% + $.15 per keyed in Monitise n/a Mosambee n/a Move and Pay n/a

mPowa 25% or minimum charge $0.40 or £0.25 or €0.30. Or 2.95%, depending on country

MRL Posnet n/a Mswipe n/a MTS POS Between Rs.200 – Rs.300 per month

NCR Silver

Full hardware package is $499 a month to connect a mobile device. First device is $79/month and additional are up to $29/month. ($.10 per transaction up to $29)

Next Gen Dine $55 per month for a license plus initial hardware package

Nomad n/a o2 £20 for the POS and 2.75%/transaction PagSeguro The reader is R$ 118.80 pay@mobile n/a PayAnywhere 2.69%/swipe

Payfirma

$25 set up fee + $10 monthly fee + 1.99%-2.92% + $ .25 / swipe. Minimum monthly fee $40 for processing less than $2,800/month.

Payleven Cost of reader (£89 or 99€) + 2.75%/transaction

PayMeRussia 2.75% for MasterCard, Maestro and Visa payments

PayTooSwipe n/a

PayPal Here 2.7% transaction fee, with no monthly fee. Non-swipes up to 3.5%, with a $ 0.15 fee

payPLUS n/a

payPocket n/a

PaySimple $34.95/month and 2.29% + $0.29 / transaction

Punchey .75% + interchange PocketPOS n/a Pogo> n/a QFPay 899 renminbi for the reader and .78%/ transaction Retail Cloud n/a

RevCOIN 2.55% per transaction or 3.55% +$.15 when card is not present

mailto:pay@mobile

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Revel n/a Sage Payments n/a

Sales Vu 2.7% in the US and between 1.73% - 3.26% in Canada

ShopKeep $49 for one register and $98 for two registers per month

Softspace n/a S-Pay MPOS n/a

Spark Pay

Pro Plan $9.95/month plus 1.95 % for swiped, 2.95 % for American Express transactions. A la carte - 2.7% per swipe and 3.7% for keyed in transactions

Spire/Thyron n/a Square $275/month or 2.75% per swipe SumUp 2.75% per transaction Swiffpay Vary based on country and type of business Swish HK$498 for reader and 2.99% per transaction Wallmob n/a WorldPay £59.99 for reader and 2.75% per transaction Vantiv n/a Visa mPOS Taiwan n/a YES Bank Rs 2,000 and Rs 250-500 per month

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The MPOS Report Context The MPOS Tracker™ organizes the ecosystem into two broad categories: those merchant-facing organizations who supply devices to merchants directly and those who “power” those players and supply them with the MPOS hardware, software, tools and services that helps merchant-facing organizations meet their customer needs. This, we believe, helps to further establish and define the playing field in what has become a very active space.

What the MPOS Tracker™ is: The MPOS Tracker™ is designed to offer an organizing framework for evaluting the many players that have entered the mobile point of sale (MPOS) sector. For the purposes of the Tracker, we will look at all mobile devices – mobile phones and tablets - and will profile players who enable commerce via either. Consider the monthly MPOS Tracker™ as our best attempt to give the payments space a “playbook” on the MPOS ecosystem and how it is evolving – a sort of “who’s on first” perspective of who’s in it, what their offerings are, and how the market may have evolved month to month. On a quarterly basis, we will do a “deep dive” into the vendors that play in a specific category.

What the MPOS Tracker™ isn’t: At least now, this report isn’t a rating or ranking of the players in this space – this feature will be introduced in Q1 of 2013. It is also probably important to note that we take the information that is provided to us by the vendors as accurate – we have not done our own due diligence to inform the placement of the players on the MPOS Pyramid™. We will conduct diligence to support the rating/ranking feature once introduced.

As we stated in our first report (October 2012), the MPOS ecosystem is moving quickly and this report is by no means complete – which is why we have chosen to do monthly updates. Further, information about the players is available in varying degrees of completeness. Details about volumes and shipments – the information that everyone finds most valuable – is not publicly available. In fact, our big wish is to publish an aggregate number of MPOS shipments so that we can track how this market moves in more quantifiable terms. We thank those who have provided us with that information, so far, but would more so that our report can be complete. We will not publish this information for any individual player but will only publish an aggregate number as available. If you would like for your numbers to be added to the total aggregate MPOS Tracker™, please contact us at [email protected].

If you would like to be included in this report and/or would like your information to be updated, please contact us at [email protected] and we will send you the data sheet required for submission. Further, if you would if you would like to be included in our ratings and ranking, please indicate this as well so that we can send along our more detailed questionnaire for you to complete.

Why is MPOS Relevant? The diffusion of smartphones worldwide has revolutionized the payments industry in a variety of ways. Mobile phones are being considered (and trialed) in both the retail payments environment and the acceptance/point of sale environments. “Going mobile” today now means that both customers and merchants are able to gain tremendous efficiencies at a point of sale that can accommodate the form factors that consumers use today - the plastic card – and move that point of interaction closer to the customer. Merchants large and small are able to gain business efficiencies as well as new customers and sales.

Along the way, card readers have been transformed into tiny devices that plug into the headset jacks of mobile phones and tablets, turning these powerful IP-enabled computing devices into mobile point of sale terminals- thus the MPOS acronym. But the power goes well beyond card acceptance anywhere, by anyone. These mobile point of

mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]

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sale devices leverage existing payments functionality and infrastructure which means that the chicken and egg issues typically associated with new payments entrants don’t exist. MPOS card readers enable the acceptance of the plastic cards that consumers carry in their wallets today and like to use.

MPOS may have started life as a way to enable casual sellers and small merchants to accept cards, but it is quickly moving up the merchant supply chain. MPOS actually started life way back in 2008 – before Square - in the mobile “field services” space enabling tradespeople and other field service personnel to deliver their services and generate both an invoice and a payment on site. Square applied this concept to the micro merchant who was unable to accept anything other than cash or check. Now, Tier One retailers are turning tablets into cash registers and moving payment and check out to wherever the consumer happens to be in the store. Clearly, MPOS is reinventing the entire commerce experience for all types of merchants and consumers.

Quite naturally, given the “perfect storm” of mobile devices, consumers and plastic cards and existing payments rails, the market has seen an explosion of POS players enter the market. MPOS players can be divided into two camps: the dozens of players who supply devices to merchants and the universe of players who “power” those players and provide them with the MPOS hardware, software and enabling platform functionality needed to meet the needs of their customers. The capabilities of those who “power” the suppliers range greatly, and as a result, the MPOS offerings in market today exhibit a wide range of functions from basic payment card acceptance and processing (eg. Groupon Payments) to enabling a merchant/consumer network (e.g. Square).

organizing the mobile point of sale ecosystem | november 2013 · tis’ the season to get shopping...

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