Win a Free Pass to All Payments Expo 2014

All Payments Expo, alongside our event partner Global Processing Services (GPS), are conducting market research to better understand the relationship between program managers and their processing partners. You will automatically be entered to win one free event pass to All Payments Expo 2014 (which can be used by you or transferred to a colleague) in exchange for filling out this brief survey.  The survey will take you less than 3 minutes to complete!

Please click the following link to take the survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/MD26VT6

      


The winner will be announced on Tuesday February 18, 2014.

In advance, thank you for participating.  We look forward to receiving your answers.

Thank you,
Diana Middleton
Global Payments Director
All Payments Expo

Neil Weeks
Chief Commercial Officer
Global Processing Services FZLLC

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Partnering Round Up: 11/18 - 11/22

All Payments Expo is committed to catalyzing value add partnerships for the betterment of the ecosystem. Here’s the weekly roundup of partnership news: 

“African telecommunications giant MTN, and world leading e-payment service provider Visa, have come into partnership to offer customers a mobile payment solution which allows MTN Mobile Money customers to make online transactions wherever Visa is accepted.”  To read the full article,  click here.

“WunWun triples orders since launch, partners with Dwolla for payment” To read the full article, click here.

“Our extended partnership with Green Dot now allows our cardholders to load funds to their prepaid cards at more than 4,000 Walmart stores that offer Walmart’s Rapid Reload service.” said MasterCard Group Executive of U.S. Market Development, Craig Vosburg. To read the full article, click here.

"SumAll, the leading provider of connected data analytics, today announced a partnership with Simplify Commerce by MasterCard that makes it easy for merchants to accept e-commerce and mobile commerce payments, regardless of payment brand, in a matter of minutes." To read the full announcement, click here.

"Visa has announced a strategic alliance with global prepaid processor i2c, Inc., affirming its commitment to the growing prepaid market in Asia-Pacific, Central Europe, Middle East & Africa (APCEMEA)." Read the full article here.

Click here for more information on partnering and how you can guarantee ROI at All Payments Expo.

See you in Las Vegas.

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The Future of Alternative Payments

Research was conducted to figure out where exactly card-based e-commerce and alternative payments were going around the world. Whether it was trying to figure out if (when?) alternative payments will eclipse card-based e-commerce or whether new innovations would decrease or increase, the results of the study painted an interesting picture for the future. 

The research was conducted by Bain Capital and Advent projects that e-commerce transactions will grow at an annualized rate of14 percent from 2010 to 2015 rising from USD $942 billion. In addition to this, there is something that is somewhat staggering: Alternative payments are actually behind card based e-commerce. But not to worry about such numbers, alternative payments are expected to pass card based e-commerce by 2015. 

BERLIN, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 05: A patient pays a quarterly consultion fee while handing over her Allgemeine Ortskrankenkasse (AOK) health insurance card on September 5, 2012 in Berlin, Germany. ( Getty Images)

The US and UK have the highest amount of e-commerce penetration rates at 77 and 60 percent respectively. In Netherlands, e-commerce growth is underpinned by an electric payment called iDEAL. iDEAL allows people to make bank transfers without entering their credit or debit information online. WorldPay estimates that there are as many as 230 alternative payments providers. 

Some believe that there can be an AP provider which can challenge the established e-commerce players. They also predict that there will be growth a 50 percent a year annually in China and Poland. Among the developed nations, Japan is expected to have a growth of 20 percent. And with the growth of other nations, prepaid may take off in ways that would turn society into more a plastic card carrying world than it ever was before. 

About the Author

Adam Wells studies English at Pace University.

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Cashless Squares Up At Starbucks

(Photo: BetaNews.com)

A typical encounter at the cash register consists of either fumbling with cash and change, or pulling out your credit card, swipe it, wait for an authorization, followed by a signing of a console or receipt. An alternative payment method has been emerging in small, and micro, businesses. 

These alternative payment methods will be more apparent in coming months as a big deal has been struck by caffeine distribution giant, Starbucks, and mobile payment startup, Square.

In early August, Starbucks has struck a deal and will be investing $25 million to outfit a network of 7000 participating stores with the mobile payment system, Square. Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, notes that, “the smartphone is the primary device in our lives.” This deal will provide Starbucks with a significant discount on credit card processing fees. Traditional credit card processing methods required businesses to pay the credit card company 2.5-5% plus equipment rental and usage charges. Square on the other hand charges a flat 2.75% with free equipment, in the form of a dongle that attaches via headphone jack on any smartphone or tablet.

In 2009, Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter, took a leap in to innovating the mobile payment space. With a simple philosophy, “everyone should be able to accept credit cards. It should be easy and free to get set up, it should use simple technology people already own, and, most importantly, it should instantly adapt to any size business”.

Square consists of four major components: a card reader, Pay With Square app, Square Register, and a Square Card Reader. The card reader is a plastic device which plugs into the audio jack of an iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and Android based mobile phones. This allows any smartphone to be used as a credit card swiping machine. Pay With Square is an app which allows customers check in a Square enabled business and set up tabs and pay with their names. It also enables them to receive electronic receipts. The Square Register is available for the iPad and transforms it into a credit card management system. Square Card Reader is another app available free of cost for iOS and Android, and is the actual interface that is utilized by the business to manage payments made via the card reader or Pay With Square app.

Previously focused around aiding small and micro businesses, with this $25 million investment from Starbucks, Square has raked in $200 million in new funding, positioning Square with a $3.25 billion valuation. As of March, Square has processed $4 billion a year in mobile payments transactions in this year alone through its 1 million registered merchants. 

With well-established companies, such as PayPal, Google Wallet, Intuit, LevelUp, and dozens others, fighting to gain market share in the space of mobile payments, the addition to the 7000 stores that have been added through the Starbucks deal, Square has taken a huge lead ahead of their growing field of competition.

The exposure provided through Starbucks to spotlight an seamless alternative payment method will greatly expand the emerging cashless zeitgeist. Expect to see more alternative payment methods at an ever growing number businesses, from your corner store to one of the thousands of Starbucks coffee shops.

About the Author


Phil Ng is a Social Media Analyst at IIR USA with a specialized focus on technology and technology culture. He may be reached at PNg@iirusa.com.

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