Mobile wallets provide many benefits to consumers, and payment experts believe mobile payments will hold a significant position in the payments ecosystem once the dust settles from the EMV shift.
Integration of loyalty programs
One of the big draws of mobile wallets is the number of secondary features available for integration. Some major retailers have already launched their own payment apps with other features such as store locators and rewards programs. These apps use existing customer accounts (often from store websites) for sign-in, payment, and account information purposes. Loyalty feature integration allows the consumer to check his or her progress toward customer rewards and to claim those rewards wirelessly.
Integration of commerce features
As mentioned above, store locators are making their way into payment apps. Centralizing commerce features such as store locators, price comparison options, shopping lists, and wishlists can give mobile wallets consumer value. This value is necessary to encourage consumer adoption, and ultimately success.
Some industry experts argue that although mobile wallets do enable payments, payments are only a small facet of the overall potential, and consumers should look to mobile wallet apps as a commerce multitool of sorts.
Integration of ticketing and transport
Mobile wallet apps can also be used to support event ticketing and transportation features. There’s talk about enabling consumers to purchase a ticket to an event, navigate to parking or transportation, pay for parking or transportation, and check in to the event all through a single app. This kind of flexibility would greatly improve the customer experience because it streamlines all phases and combines them in one place.