ApplePay User Review: The Default Card process and Top of Wallet Implications.

Last week, First Annapolis Consulting released “Tracking Apple Pay: 11//13/2014. First Annapolis has been tracking Apple Pay and keeping their professional community informed. The key focus of this review is to outline how consumers enter and select payment cards; the “Default Card Process”. I was intrigued by the implications of the review. Most intriguing is how the Default Card Process alters the relationship between the consumer, their default card and “Top of Wallet” position. Top of Wallet position is one of the most significant factors when a consumer chooses a method of payment. If ApplePay impacts which method of payment a consumer chooses by virtue of the “user experience” and the “default card feature”, then many new questions arise. Perhaps the most important question is how this alters the consumer payment relationship and fees between the issuers and merchants. As importantly, since ApplePay charges the issuer and controls the user experience, could this create a new layer of competition between issuers for the Top of Wallet Position? The obvious result is higher transactions fees.

Setting out to understand how ApplePay and the User Experience might alter the consumer’s payment behavior requires actually using the product and for that I turned to one of my mist trusted associates, Mile Kuzel, Client Solutions Executive, Toth Consulting. Mike was good enough to listen to my questions. He agreed to help out on this blog, here is his review. I’ll look forward reading about your experience with ApplePay.

Mike Kuzel: My ApplePay Adventures, Part I

I’m an admitted tech geek and willingly drink the Cupertino Kool-Aid. I’m also a professional in the retail technology field with some experience in the mobile payments world. My motivation to get the iPhone 6 was in no small part because of ApplePay and the promise of a world class mobile payment / digital wallet user experience from the people who make things I love to use and want to use all the time.

Once ApplePay launched I scanned my cards into my iPhone 6’s Passbook and the first card was a Delta SkyMiles AMEX, which went in automatically as my default. Then I loaded a Citi MasterCard Credit Card and lastly my USAA MasterCard Debit Card that is tied to my checking account.

I was ready to experience the future! My first stop was Walgreens, as I needed some allergy medicine. I approached the counter; handed the item over, presented my Walgreens loyalty card (from Apple Passbook of course) and that first beep sounded a lot like “Gentlemen, start your engines!” to me. The cashier then rang up my item…beep! Now was the moment I’d been waiting for, my inaugural ApplePay transaction. I touched the phone to the pin pad and the iPhone presented the picture of my default AMEX and the prompt to hit Touch ID. Thumbprint and done! It was easy and quick and it felt as great as I imagined. Over the coming weeks I repeated this process a few more time at Walgreens, once at Office Depot and ApplePay life was good. Then came yesterday. The day I decided I wanted to pay with a different card than my default AMEX. I made this decision, quite normally, at the checkout while my items were ringing up at my local Whole Foods. My glorious happy “Apple is Awesome” song playing on loop in my head hit the proverbial record scratch moment and ApplePay fell back to earth for this user.

The cashier was almost finished scanning. Beep, beep, beep… I’d made my decision to use my checking via my USAA card loaded into my ApplePay. I hit the card in my Passbook to pick it and assumed that would do the trick.

“That will be $21.41 sir” I’m not sure when I graduated to sir but I’ll take what pleasantries I can get these days in the world of retail service.

“Sure thing let me just…” I hit the USAA card picture one more time in the Passbook app then touched the phone to the pin pad. I fully expected another awesome ApplePay transaction. Wait…“Hmmmm”… the AMEX, not the USAA card presented itself as payment on the screen. My inner voice that normally whispers seemed to yell at me “does not compute”!

I’m standing there a little confused and politely asked for just a second longer. I glance behind me and realize the woman queued up next had noticed my inability to pay quickly. You’ve all experienced the body language of judgment upon holding others up in a grocery line, no? I fumble with the phone. Home button, go to settings… let’s see…where is it? Oh yeah “Passbook & ApplePay” I’ll just hit that, pick my card and all good. Not perfect but can’t be harder than that right? I mean this is Apple, their stuff just works! Bingo! I see all the cards listed I hit the one I want and it takes me to a screen to either open my USAA app or remove the card… nope…that’s not what I need to switch payment. Tick, tick, tick… already way to long for a normal checkout. Body language lady behind me has shifted into the verbal realm, “Why don’t you just pay the old fashioned way?” I laugh at what I presume is humor and agree with her that she might be onto something there. I’m determined to do this now, if for no other reason than geek pride. My neighborhood legacy shall not remain Whole Foods ApplePay version of the Star Trek “redshirts”!

Now I’m back to settings. How do I switch cards…? Aha! “Default Card” maybe I make the choice there. Thumb of fury… tap, tap, tap and I pick the USAA card which actually changes my default card. This is different from what I expected or wanted and a seemingly extreme measure, so final, but I’m already on borrowed time. I back out of screen and hold the phone to the pin pad feeling a little like a gambler on his last bit of luck “just one last bet”. Jackpot! The USAA card picture shows on the iPhone. I Touch ID and on I’m finally on my way. Walking out I’m a little bewildered and frustrated by the user experience cooked up by the normally on point Apple folks.

I wasn’t timing the transaction yet by any measure it took way too long to pay simply because I chose to use a different card. I’m tech savvy and an early adopter; I knew intuitively what steps I should be looking to take to solve this issue but what about the general public using Apple Pay? Would they give up and pay with cash or a card from their wallet or just keep the default even though it wasn’t their desire?

My experience with switching cards for payment in ApplePay proved less than stellar, as it was too clunky and involved with too many steps. Critics might say now that I know the process it will prove faster and they’d be correct yet they’d be missing the proverbial point, it shouldn’t be that cumbersome.

If Apple has designs on Passbook as a true digital wallet, and all signs point to that, then they need to rethink how it works. I’m focused on user experience here, which doesn’t even touch the implication for who gets and how they get the coveted “top of wallet” status in the digital wallet. I believe the success (and by that I mean adoption by actual people) of mobile payments via digital wallets rides on user experience. A poor design could stunt enthusiasm as more people make the natural choice to use another card from their ApplePay wallet and wonder why it’s so much harder than the old fashioned way.

The Battle of the Titans continues as NACS squares off with the ETA over mobile payment.

Greek Mythology and the payments industry seem to have a lot in common. There’s something similar about CVS and Rite Aids decision not to accept Apple Pay that reminds me of when “Cronus attacked Uranus, and, with the sickle cut off his”…..well, you get the point.

There has been a lot of noise about mobile payment over the last few years. Confusion about technology and economics clouds the issues. Now, in the same tradition of Durbin (legislation) and Brooklyn (litigation), banks and retailers are setting the stage for another battle over mobile payment. The new issue is; does Apple Pay, Softcard and other NFC based solutions simply enable the traditional payment providers (read fees), or is MCX just an anti-competitive alliance of retailers created for no other reason to leverage the emerging consumer acceptance of mobile payment systems to drive the cost of payments down? In the middle is the consumer who simply wants convenience and choice.

The Apple Pay launch opened the latest salvo in the fee/service war. The Electronic Transactions Association is saying that the decision by CVS and Rite Aid to block mobile payments services like Apple Pay, Google Wallet, and Softcard is “anti-consumer and anti-competitive”. NACS, apparently in support of the Retailers MCX relationship is saying that Apple Pay essentially allows “Visa/MasterCard monopoly into mobile payments”. saying “Those two dominant credit card networks have faced a lengthy series of antitrust actions from the U.S. Department of Justice and merchants over the years due to their anticompetitive conduct. Now, they are working feverishly to require merchants to accept their preferred technology, near-field communications (NFC), so that they can extend their dominance into the future.” How supporting MCX, a program that requires exclusivity within the mobile payment channel, even the exclusion of non-VISA/Mastercard 3rd parties is not Anti-Competitive is a bit of a mystery.

Let’s be clear, MCX could allow either Visa or Mastercard into the CurrentC wallet, it’s a business decision, not a technology issue. Apple was clever enough to shift costs (at least for now) to the issuer, rather than the merchant. This opened the door to many merchants avoiding the interchange conversation. Why many merchants have chosen not to join MCX might have something to do with membership fees, product availability, or perhaps that it is an ACH program rather than a new low cost 4^th network. After all, there are many ACH providers, why spend a lot of money joining a coalition only to pay a high membership fee for a product that is already available from other providers?

The reason the industry is lining up to fight over the CVS & Rite Aid decision is because this is another skirmish in a multi-year battle over the fees retailers pay, or banks earn, when consumers make a payment. For retailers simply wanting mobile payment at low cost, the program is available today. Retailers can compete with banks for consumer’s method of payment, that’s the “Competitors Code”. The point is, Retailers don’t need legislation or litigation to drive fees down, competition will do the job. If CVS and Rite Aid don’t want to accept Apple Pay, so be it. On the other hand, how does a restrictive exclusive contract with MCX serve the consumer?

Three emerging trends in payment

Consumer payments will experience accelerated change in 2013. Multiple disruptive and innovative companies, particularly 3^rd party app developers and retailer branded mobile solutions, will enter the market to challenge the incumbents. Traditional payment processing networks and financial institutions will struggle to keep pace with nimble, tech savvy competitors. “Payments incumbents will leverage their market power to battle disruptors. MasterCard’s new fee structure for “staged” digital wallet providers such as Google Wallet, PayPal and Square” are an early shot-across-the-bow in a fight that will set the stage for payments over the next decade. The legacy technology managing the current payment processing network will be unable to keep pace as new POS and cloud based programs enable merchants and consumers to pick winners and losers.  Mobile solutions; coupled with low cost alternative payment, in conjunction with retailer funded rewards, will become more abundant, more accessible, and deliver greater value.

The eco-system is changing. A new “Retailer-Consumer-centric” payments paradigm is emerging. The future of the new paradigm will be shaped by three disruptive digital (POS based combined with IP communication) trends:

◾The POS Payments Cloud:  The last 10 years has brought major change to the POS and communications.  Less than 10 years ago the POS was a relatively limited device and communications were slow and arcane, at least by today’s standards.  The traditional legacy payments processing network relies on processors, associations and financial institutions in conjunction with POS vendors and a “heavy” communications systems like the Hughes satellite network to enable electronic payment. Unlike the consumer and their expectations, change within this eco-system is difficult, time consuming and expensive.  POS vendors are setting the slate to disintermediate the traditional network through the introduction of the “payment cloud”. Today’s POS is a powerful device built with open standards capable of supporting a wide range of payment and loyalty solutions. The internet changed the nature of communication allowing low cost, reliable, fast, and secure connectivity. Emerging payment models leverage the combination of POS capability and the internet to disrupt traditional payment economics. “Merchants have a growing set of payment options that do not adhere to the traditional interchange or processing fee model. Some of these options even deliver additional value above and beyond payment processing. As merchants adopt these new payment methods, their expectations will reset and they will expect lower costs and greater value from incumbent payment service providers. Traditional economic models will not disappear overnight, but it would be a mistake for payment incumbents to dismiss the growing number of unique pricing schemes and the disruptors who are moving aggressively to gain scale”. Watch for the emergence of these POS payment platforms in 2013.

◾Mobile Payment: Mobile payment and digital wallets will change the nature of the relationship between the consumer and the retailer. New technology will enable a robust “dialogue” between the consumer and the retailer during the “purchase cycle” allowing the retailer to engage the consumer before, during and after the transaction.  Technology “will drive adoption by integrating capabilities that remove friction and transform the payments and commerce experience in contextually relevant ways. These wallets will embed capabilities that can create a more convenient commerce experience for consumers and give merchants a growing set of potential benefits — that may provide a distinct competitive advantage — to evaluate and weigh against the additional costs of wallet acceptance.”

◾ACH & Merchant Issued Rewards: The advantage merchants have in mobile payment is two-fold. First, merchant control access to their mobile payment environment, they will decide what forms of payment are available to the consumer. Secondly, rewards are the key driver for consumers as they choose their method of payment and rewards are controlled by the merchant.

 

Low cost alternative payments in conjunction with merchant issued rewards will appeal to a broad base of retailers and consumers. The loyalty industry in the US is significantly more than $10 Billion dollars and growing. Current card acceptance fees are in the two percent range adding up to billions of dollars. Merchants who leverage the combination of these two line items will offer consumers powerful incentives. Clearly, Merchants can have a lot of influence regarding payment choice with this type of spending. “Disruptors are creating better, lower-cost alternative products and services that deliver more value and meet broad-based payment needs.” Retailer services will provide consumers with personal, relevant offers designed to drive a more profitable purchasing experience.  ACH payment will lead the way towards low card acceptance fees. Retailers who recapitalize these fees as consumer rewards will see increased sales and profits.

 

It will take a few years before we see the full force of this disruption. Retailers will be hesitant to make the technology changes necessary to support the new payments paradigm. Some will wait as end-of-life requirements make change inevitable, others will jump in early and gain leverage in their market.

2013 will be an interesting year for the payments market, what changes do you see in your organization?

How big is Big? The Uber Cloud

In my last blog I discussed the three high level priorities of Big Data and its role with mobile payment.  In this blog I take a closer look at how big is BIG DATA. Today, retailers have access to the transactional data that they collect at the POS, or is provided to them by 3^rd parties. Big Data is the “other data” from the “Uber Cloud”. The Uber Cloud includes all data sources like web server logs and internet clickstream data, social media activity reports, mobile-phone call and text detail records and information captured by sensors.

How big is big? YouTube, FaceBook and Goggle are estimated to store 1400 petabytes of data including more than 35% of the world’s photographs. Between them, they share approximately 11.2 billion page views per day. People “Tweet” about 128 billion times per year at a rate of 4500 tweets per second. Annually, people spend over 2.2 trillion minutes either talking on the phone or sending 6.1 trillion texts. On any given day people are texting 193,000 messages per second or spending 2.2 trillion minutes talking on the phone.  There are only 7 billion people. We can agree, this is BIG!

That’s a lot of millions, billions and trillions: but what is a Petabyte? When I tried to think about how to explain a Petabyte I found myself thinking of Doctor Evil demanding; “one million dollars” not aware of how little a million dollars had become. It is true, a million dollars is not what it used to be, but the same is even truer when considering data.

A Petabyte is big. Mathematically, “a unit of information equal to one quadrillion (short scale) bytes, or 1 billiard (long scale) bytes”.  It’s hard to visualize what a Petabyte could hold. “1 Petabyte could hold approximately 20 million 4-drawer filing cabinets full of text. It could hold 500 billion pages of standard printed text. It would take about 500 million floppy discs to store the same amount of data”. The promise of mobile payments is that retailers will be able to access and use these data sources to build a more profitable, relevant relationship with their customers.

Big Data means Big Data Analytics. Big data analytics is the process of examining large amounts of data from a variety of sources to uncover hidden patterns, unknown correlations and other useful information to engage the consumer during the purchase cycle. Access to Big Data within the mobile wallet will drive radical efficiencies enhancing social engagement and improve information sharing between the consumer and the retailer.

Big Data, mobile payments and the connected consumer

“Big Data” is a term that refers to the vast quantity of consumer information that is available both on-line through 3^rd party resources and within the retailer’s environment. Connecting Big Data to consumers through mobile payments represents the commercial usefulness of the information. Thanks to more powerful ePOS, the internet and the emergence of the “information cloud” this data can now be manipulated and utilized to drive pre-sales consumer engagement and drive sales during the purchase cycle. Big Data information is more potent when it can be applied to areas unconnected with how it was originally collected. As an example, the ability to link the CDC’s tracking of the flu with promotions for cold medications, or the ability to link coupons for hot/cold drinks to National Weathers Services tracking of temperatures. The back bone of retailer performance will be connecting Big Data to mobile payments (the consumer) during the purchase cycle through “personalization” and driving consumer engagement.

Mobile payments. The integration of the consumer through their smart phone to Big Data is the technical challenge facing the industry. Leveraging Big Data in a mobile payment environment means establishing a dialogue between the consumer’s smart phone/wallet and the ePOS at the time of purchase allowing a robust exchange of data so that the consumer experiences payment, loyalty, and offers (product recommendations, coupons) in one seamless experience.

The technical requirements of serving mobile payment and the connected consumer at the ePOS during the purchase cycle will drive change in the payments processing environment. Perhaps the greatest change is the potential disintermediation of the traditional payment processor from the mobile payment. A large shift in consumer payment behavior to mobile payment means a significant drop in card transactions across the legacy payment processing network. 

The legacy payments processing network was built to handle payments at the beginning of the electronic payments era before the emergence of Big Data. The result is that the infrastructure, while highly fault tolerant and reliable, does not lend itself well to change and is not compatible with a robust exchange of Big Data between the consumer and POS at the time of the transaction. This is great for the traditional card based ISO8583 message, but severely lacking for mobile payments and Omni-channel shopping.

The ePOS has evolved from a limited “dumb” machines built around closed systems with proprietary code to a very powerful computing device utilizing open standards. The ePOS now has the ability to communicate in an IP environment and as a result, has the ability to communicate both payment and Big Data to networks outside of the legacy payment network utilizing IP based communication.  ePOS vendors have changed their payments strategy and are moving to cloud based systems. In Petroleum all four major providers are developing cloud based payments applications that will standardize the software between the POS, EPS and Payments Cloud.

The future of Omni-channel shopping depends on the ability to communicate to the connected consumer through an IP/cloud based mobile payment with access to Big Data. Big Data is the “secret sauce” of mobile payments.