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By 2015, the value of all mobile transactions is expected to reach $670 billion.
THOUGHT: The rapid adoption of mobile payment systems will depend almost entirely on how easy they are to use.
We discussed Near Field Communications for our inaugural Daily Numbers podcast and the concept of friction-free commerce. Devices that come equipped with Near Field Communications technology allow you to waive your phone in front of an NFC terminal and voila!, you’ve completed a transaction.
ISIS, Google, American Express and Visa are all hard at work turning that vision into reality. The newest entry into the mobile payment market is Square with its Card Case app.
The company that introduced us to the Square iPhone/iPad attachment that allows anyone to swipe cards and take credit/debit card transactions, now has a service that eliminated even the physical motion of making payments. No need to waive. No need to swipe.
With the Card Case app, all you do is enter your payment information with Square, establish relationship with participating merchants with whom you want to do business and then your mere physical presence at the merchant location will allow you to order what you want while the payment simply occurs in the background without you needing to initiate it. [WATCH A Demonstration.]
Square does this without the benefit of Near Field Communication but instead uses Geofencing, that is, creating a virtual fence around their physical location within which transactions are conducted.
Geofencing is not a new concept. When you run a zip code targeted Facebook ad campaign, you are essentially employing geofencing. Flickr allows you to configure your privacy setting using geofencing so, for example, you could only allow family members to see photos you’ve taken within a certain geographic radius of your home.
As more local online marketing becomes more common, though, so will the concept of geofencing.
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