Mobile POS (point of sale) acceptance is attracting small merchants to big-box retailers, posing a growing threat to traditional terminal-based solutions and vendors.
Javelin Strategy & Research released the firm’s first “Mobile Point of Sale (POS) Business and Market Impact 2013″ report, which provides a market sizing of the US merchant marketplace and comparisons among 14 selected leading solution providers in the POS space.
Companies mentioned in the report include Corduro, FirstData, Fiserv, GoPago, Groupon, Heartland Payment System, Home Depot, Intuit, LightSpeed, MasterCard, NCR Silver, Nordstrom, PayAnywhere, PayPal, ROAM, Square, VeriFone and Visa.
Mobile POS expands the existing market for the card payment networks, as Javelin estimates that mobile POS could expand current payment card acceptance by as much as 20 million firms if eligible firms started accepting payments. This impact could account for up to $1.1 trillion in annual new‐card payments.
“The new mobile POS players pose a threat to the traditional POS terminal and acquiring businesses, which must adapt, invest, or acquire,” said Mary Monahan, Executive Vice President and Research Director – Mobile at Javelin Strategy & Research. “Vendors need to stay informed on competitor moves and react immediately to pricing or feature changes to remain relevant and competitive in today’s dynamic POS environment.”
Mobile POS has the capacity to attract all merchant tiers: from small self‐employed cash‐only vendors to the largest retailers. And the allure of mobile POS reaches both sides of the counter — the majority of consumers currently view mobile POS acceptance as very or extremely convenient. However, translating mobile POS’s strategic benefits and consumer appeal into broad adoption requires an understanding of both the crowded mobile POS acceptance marketplace, feature set, and pricing, and the consumer segments to target for early adoption.
Javelin Strategy & Research’s Mobile POS Business and Market Impact 2013 report evaluates the merchant market for mobile POS solutions, the benefits and drawbacks of the solutions, as well as who are 14 key US providers of mobile POS and how their services and strategies differ. It is based on two online surveys of more than a total of 9,000 consumers, as well as interviews with executives at 14 mobile POS vendors and 2 related payment firms.
