On Thursday I received a call from Serge van Dam (Head of Marketing - MCOM) in response to the article I posted last week about NFC stickers.
Somewhat to my surprise I learned that not only was M-COM familiar with the solution, but had also recently conducted a pilot.
Here are just a few of their key findings:
* The trial was run in conjunction with Paymark (New Zealand’s largest payment switch) and retail bank ASB (a subsidiary of Commonwealth Bank of Australia).
* The findings confirm what we have always believed about payment channels – convenience is king” claims Adam Clark (CEO - MCOM). “Convenience and ease of use were considered the biggest drivers of preferred payment instruments for consumers prior to the trial, and over 75% of participants declared afterwards that the contactless mobile payment experience was more convenient that card based and cash transactions.”
* Cash was the most substituted payment instrument during the M-Com trial, largely due to the low average transaction size during the trial (coffee and snacks were the most frequently purchased items).
* Users also stated that they had an interest in applying contactless mobile payments across other regular purchase types they partake in - namely; parking (72%), vending machines (69%), public transport (63%) and convenience stores (61%).
* “Participating merchants felt that once the technology was in place, including staff familiarity, it delivered a faster and easier payment process for their low value transactions. Ultimately, they were able to push through more purchases, which means more revenue and more profit”
* M-Com is currently working through assessing the technical feasibility of various near-field communications (NFC) deployment models. Later in 2008, M-Com plans to integrate its contactless payment capabilities into its mobile banking platform – BankAnywhere – to enable retail banks to seamlessly offer mobile banking and payment services to consumers off a single technology investment.
