How Discounts are Changing the Mobile Payments Adoption Curve (VIDEO)

It’s holiday shopping season. People have abandoned their families to shop on Thanksgiving, then stood outside in the wee hours of the morning on Black Friday waiting for doors to open.

They’ve dutifully ignored work (on occasion) to browse online retailers. They’ve sharpened their elbows and mobilized through intense crowds at malls, warehouse stores, and big box retailers.

People will go to great lengths to get a great deal. They’ll do things outside their normal scope of behavior, especially this time of year.

In fact, if you browse through our collection of coupon statistics, you’ll see that valuable merchant content inspires people to try a lot of new things.

Even mobile payments.

If mobile payment adoption is going to grow by 700% in the next two years, as predicted by eMarketer, then “cool technology” isn’t going to be enough. Sure - transactions have to be quicker, the security has to be tightened up, and some of the unique capabilities of smartphones need to be better utilized (GPS, real-time data, etc). Cool technology will bring in the curious early adopters, but if $200 billion in payments is going to be realized, then adoption has to go much, much deeper.

Payments for the Rest of Us

The question to always be asked is, “What’s in it for them?”

Deals, mobile coupons, and exclusive discount content from merchants are the shortcut to mobile wallet adoption. It’s what will bring in Aunt Rosie and Uncle Tom, who are intimidated by the iPhones their kids pressured them into buying. It’ll bring in your good friend George , he of the massive wallet held together with duct tape and rubber bands.

Besides bringing in the late-adopters, this approach has a secondary benefit: focusing on discount content is a great way to build up merchant partnerships. It’s the quickest, easiest way for everyone involved to see some sort of return.

Want an example of this concept in action? Check out this video from Money2020, featuring Kelly Passey from Access Development and Jim Stapleton of Softcard. The two companies have partnered to add in-store mobile coupons to the Softcard solution, with great early results.