The mobile payment industry is one of the fastest-growing industries as more and more businesses are providing mobile payment options to expand their business for an increasing number of online and walk-in consumers who prefer mobile payment methods. This has been evident by the growth of $100 billion industry in 2011 to $431 billion industry now [1] which is expected to double by 2019 [2] and a growing interest by technology giants like Apple, Samsung, and Google to launch their own products in this domain. The industrious growth of the mobile payment is mainly due to mushrooming of innovative mobile payment methods which have taken the purchase process to the next level of ease on the level of personal comfort and cost-benefit.
[1] & [2]: Statics provided by Statista & Business Insider
As mobile technology advances with every passing day, innovators around the globe come up with new and more interesting ways to provide more interesting and easy mobile payment solutions. Among the plethora of mobile payments options, the following are the 5 outstanding ways you may use at some time if you aren’t using them already.
1. Virtual-Credit Card Account
Traditional mobile payment methods involve setting up a mobile payment account based on your credit card details so that, payments for the purchase are made from that virtual account which draws money from the visa account which has been linked to it previously.
Leading mobile payment service providers like PayPal, Bitcoin, Google Wallet, Apple Pay, Square, and many others use this method for mobile payments at a nominal cost per transaction. Some of these service providers also offer mobile attachable Credit card reader.
On a more casual side of affairs, some mobile payment solutions are specialized for a special type of payments. For example, Tabbed out is an app which lets you enjoy meals in hundreds of restaurants around the US and pay the bill via your phone.
2. Mobile-SMS Account
Some payment solution providers offer the ability to make a transaction to the receiver’s phone number. For example, Venmo is a mobile payment method where any number could be paid with the desired amount from payer’s Venmo account, the receiver’s account is automatically created online and he receives a text message informing about the payment he has received.
Whereas, Boloro is an even more advanced payment solution that provides the ease of direct deduction of the payment from payer’s mobile bill, a great add-on for mobile purchasers without a bank-account or visa card.
3. Social Media Account
What could be easier than making payment to your friend or anyone who has a presence on Facebook or Twitter by just tapping on their IDs from your phone? This could be done with the help of Social media-based payment apps, such as Dwolla which enables the user to create a Dwolla payment account, integrate it with your Facebook account and start sharing ‘Dwollas’ with people on your Facebook list. Venmo has also upgraded its payment module to enable social media-based payments.
4. Mobile NFC Account
The grand unification of NFC technology and Mobile payment innovations have enabled possibilities beyond ordinary comprehensions. Ever since the launch of NFC featured devices in 2010, developers around the world have come up with interesting apps but leading NFC based mobile purchasing solutions providers like Boloro and ZMAZZ have proposed payment techniques which involves only a tap of phone to make payments for Bus fares, Car parking, utility bills or just anything you could name. This method involves the transmission of modulated information about the user to NFC enabled check-out counter on a tap of the phone through NFC transmitter of payer’s mobile.
5. QR Code-Bank Account
Leading merchants like Walmart, Shell oil, Target, Best Buy, CVS and many more have joined hands to come up with an app called Current C. This app will enable the user to make payment for any item they purchase by just scanning the QR code attached to it which will be identified by the app that directly makes payment from payer’s connected bank-account without deduction of any transaction fees. Ease and cost-cutting provided by this app which has been backed by merchandises which deal in over 110,000 locations and over $1 trillion accounts for the potential future of this method for mobile purchase.
This article is written by Syed Irfan. He is a serial entrepreneur, a columnist and a certified inbound marketer. He curates content for Boloro.
Featured image attribution: HLundgaard [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons.
