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Mobile commerce is growing rapidly, yet businesses continue to be slow to adopt mobile payment options, according to a survey of 2,000 merchants, service providers, card issuers and others.
Conducted for the third consecutive year by Kount, CardNotPresent.com and The Fraud Practice, the survey revealed many concerns businesses have about new payment methods, such as Apple Pay.
Just over 40 percent of organizations surveyed said they are uncertain if fraud increased following a major data breach, and more than half (60 percent) of respondents are uncertain if mobile fraud is growing at a faster, slower or equal pace as their overall mobile transaction volume.
“One of the biggest hurdles facing businesses looking to adopt mobile payments is that they just don’t know where to start. There has been such an influx of companies offering products that all sound like they do similar things, and there has been a lot of media buzz around mobile wallets from Apple, Samsung and others. It t can be quite confusing to tell which is most beneficial to a businesses’ needs and consumers’ wants,” Don Bush, vice president of marketing at Kount, told eWEEK. “Companies should look for a payment platform that can handle multiple options. Sometimes they are even customized to their industry.”
Bush said businesses can most effectively protect themselves against fraud and other security concerns by taking mobile payment security seriously.
“Many businesses, especially retailers, aren’t experts in fraud, and that’s OK, as long as they have a partner in place who is,” he said. “Over half of the retailers surveyed think the mobile channel is equally or less risky than standard ecommerce transactions and are uncertain if fraud tools can be used across multiple channels.”
Less than one quarter (23.7 percent) of merchants accept mobile wallets, which is the lowest amongst all respondent groups.
PayPal is the most accepted form of mobile payment, accepted by 54 percent of merchants, according to the survey.
Bush said that it’s essential to have processes in place to monitor all transactions in real-time to seek out similarities in non-legitimate transactions.
“Solutions also need to be flexible and predictive, so that the technology stays one step ahead as fraud evolves, and they must work seamlessly together so companies can better understand their customers and the context behind each order to prevent truly fraudulent transactions, while ensuring that legitimate ones are going through undisturbed,” he said.
While Apple Pay launched less than six months ago, it already has equal levels of merchant acceptance as Google Wallet. Both are accepted by 32 percent of merchants that accept mobile wallets.
However, support for Apple Pay (42 percent) by service providers and non-merchant organizations already exceeds that for Google Wallet (39 percent).
“Mobile payment technology adoption will increase as consumers carry their smartphones everywhere,” Bush said. “We’ve already seen a number of new options coming to market using mobile devices, including wearable devices like watches, wristbands, and so on. At the same time, fraudsters will continue coming up with ways to scam the system. Technologies will become more convenient and widespread, instead of the flood of piece-meal solutions that are seen today.”