Why Apple is Poised to Become the King of Payments

Via Micheal Koploy of Software Advice

Bear with me as I imagine grocery shopping in 2013. You walk into Sam’s Club and grab a shopping basket. Your iPhone lights up with a new push notification:

“Welcome to Sam’s Club. Do you want to use your standard shopping list?”

You click no, and instead select the “Summer BBQ List” that you found on Epicurious. The app pops open a map of the store and tells you to head to aisle 2. You enter the aisle and find your first item: pickle relish.

“Please scan each item as you place it in your shopping basket,” the screen reads. You locate the bar code on the jar, and scan it with your iPhone.

The iPhone responds, “You have selected Josh’s Pickle Relish. This brand is $0.22 cheaper at your nearby Safeway. Would you like a Safeway coupon?”

Not worth it today. You press, “No,” and continue shopping, guided by your phone, and scan each item as you place it in your basket. The app is smart, of course, and it guides you around the store in the most efficient route, alerting you as you near each item on your list.

You have completed your shopping list. Based on your selection of: pickle relish, ketchup, onions, hot dogs, and buns, would you also like to purchase potato salad? It’s $1.00 off today. If so, head to aisle 11.

Sounds like a good deal. You go for it.

As you walk towards the exit, your iPhone reads, “You have previously chosen to pay with your Visa card ending in 4128. Select, “Pay,” to complete your purchase using this account.

You select, “Pay,” take your cart, and exit the store. You’ll receive an email on your drive home detailing your purchase with electronic coupons for your next shopping trip.

***

Apple has the potential to change our retail experience, and this future is becoming closer to reality.

Apple Payments Would Be a Game-Changer
“It Gets Better.” This slogan has become a staple of Apple’s World-Wide Developer Conference each year, and a creed for the company’s services. If the scenario above is what I can dream up, imagine what the minds in Cupertino can invent. Apple has revolutionized how we consume music, mobile applications, and media, in general. I fully expect them to revolutionize the retail experience, too. In the process, I think they will come to own a huge chunk of the payments industry.

Why is that important? For one, it’s a $48 billion opportunity. Assuming companies like Visa, Mastercard, and American Express receive about 1.5 to 2.5% of every transaction, that’s easily over $20 billion in swipe fees alone. Meanwhile, merchant services providers – the companies that set up retailers with terminals and act as a conduit to Visa, et. al. earn .5 to 1% of every transaction—up to another $16 billion for their role in the process.

We think Apple has a chance to own the later opportunity by acting as a merchant services provider. If Apple can revolutionize the point of sale, consumers will use their iPhone for retail checkout. Behind the scenes, Apple will be processing payments as a merchant services provider. Consumers won’t care who’s processing the transaction or earning fees.

Here’s my experience. I used to only have a Visa credit card, but was forced to obtain a Mastercard because it was the only one accepted by my loan provider. And that is the beginning and end of my payment preferences. I don’t care if I make a purchase with a Visa, Mastercard, or any other card brand, or if the merchant I am purchasing from uses merchant services company A or company B—it makes no difference to me. Consumers are indifferent to the various payment service providers.

I would, however, care if one provider gave me tools to make informed purchases and make the retail experience more enjoyable. And this is why Apple has the potential to shake-up retail and own the payments industry.

The NFC iPhone Will Change Everything
There is increasing speculation that Apple will soon release a touchscreen device with near field communication (NFC) capabilities, most likely a next-generation iPhone. This technology powers services such as Mastercard’s PayPass, where consumers just need to tap their credit card or other PayPass-enabled device to make a purchase.

When Apple releases this device, they’re poised to leave a heavy footprint on the payments industry. Purchases would be facilitated by presenting an iPhone instead of a credit card; Apple can create a merchant services offering to receive the processing fees for these transactions.

This iPhone would not only be a device that facilitates purchases, but one that creates a more robust, efficient, and enjoyable shopping experience. This is why Apple Payments would be different and a game-changer. It would create reason for the consumer to choose one payment network over another, and give Apple leverage to enter and own the payments market.

Apple Has the Done It Elsewhere
Apple already acts as a merchant for its iTunes and App store, and receives a cut of all transactions. Here’s how much they receive from App Store revenues:

• Apple collects 30% of all revenues from App Store sales
• Apple collects 30% of sales revenues from in-app purchases
• Apple collects 40% of ad sales from in-app ads (iAd)
• Apple charges $99 per year for developers to have access to its SDK

Services like iTunes and the App Store enhance the quality of Apple’s products by extending their functionality. And the market for iPhone and iPads is just beginning to reach its potential, as estimates are that only 30 to 40% of mobile phone users have a smart phone.

As Apple has matured their hardware and adopted this revenue-sharing model, they have become increasingly closer to Apple Payments. Apple is poised to enter the merchant services market—as soon as they release an NFC iPhone.

Consumers Would Force Merchants to Switch
iPhone users would input their credit cards numbers into their iPhones, and present their phones at virtual checkouts to complete their transactions. No more waiting in line. With consumers overjoyed at the convenience of iPhone checkouts, retailers would have no choice but to adopt Apple payments.

But why would merchants switch to Apple Payments? Traditionally, merchants made these decisions based on their own interests. But Apple could offer an experience that other providers don’t, and can’t. Bundled with Apple’s customer loyalty, this could potentially force the merchants’ hands, and allow Apple to demand whatever they saw fit for processing fees. By doing so, Apple could enter the $16 billion merchant services market I alluded to earlier.

But what if they take it a step further. What if Apple owned the entire payment network? What if consumers didn’t pay with their Visa card on their iPhone, but their Apple credit account on their iPhone? This could entitle Apple to up to another 2.5% of every purchase.

Yes. I realize I’m starting to get a bit out there, but who ten years ago would have thought Apple would dominate the music industry today? Or the smartphone industry? Or tablet computers? Apple is sitting on Scrooge McDuck-esque cash reserves, an amount sure to grow over the next few years. A few years from now, maybe Apple could just buy Visa and own the entire payment industry.

What Will It Take For Apple to Be the Payments King?
If and when Apple announces an NFC-capable iOS device, it will assuredly be bundled with an official Apple Payments app—third-party apps would be subject to Apple’s revenue sharing, and that would never work.

Apple will need to release an NFC iPhone, and prepare a merchant services portal. This means that Apple will have to prepare these services well before they announce the device, meshing with new rumors that the iPhone 6, not 5, will be the one with NFC capabilities. Once in place, merchants can accept iPhone transactions, and will pay Apple a processing fee. After they establish this network, Apple can blow the entire industry out of the water, and become a new credit brand à la Visa and Mastercard.

So, what do you think? Do you think Apple could shake-up the payments industry? This would assuredly make Apple one of the most powerful companies in history, so maybe a better question would be: would Apple play nice as the King of Payments?

Square: Getting a Boost from Visa

The latest big news for Square is Visa coming on board as an investor. This no doubt gives the mobile credit card service a boost of credibility and warning shot to potential competitors that it is here to stay. What's in it for Visa? As Forbes explains they get  a piece of the action when it comes to really small business who normally use cash and are switching to credit cards. Square is a fantastic solution for people with a small side business that perhaps use it for small dollar amounts and use it somewhat infrequently. Square does not accept Amex nor can it deal well with larger dollar amounts on a daily or monthly basis (as explained here). It also does not work with a blackberry. For those who are serious about accepting credit cards they should be seeking a merchant service provider who can provide software and/or hardware for your smart phone but stay clear of contracts and termination fees.

Deceptive Credit Card Processing Tacticts

Phil Hinke a veteran of the merchant service industry, has a great article at Practical E-Commerce.He goes on to discuss many of the various pricing methods used in the credit card processing business including tier and interchange pricing. Phil explains some deceptive interchange pricing practices:

"Interchange-plus pricing is typically the best way to go. However, there are some processors who claim to be offering interchange-plus pricing, but are deceptively offering something worse. The first are those processors who are offering interchange-plus pricing with the under-the-breath caveat that it is only for 'qualified' transactions. What they are really offering is a tiered pricing plan because there will be no qualifying transactions. Therefore, every transaction will downgrade at a much higher rate to one of their tiered pricing levels.

"The second deceptive interchange-plus pricing plan is the one that inflates the interchange rate. A salesperson recently sent me one of his own merchant statements to analyze — many salespeople do not trust their processor any more than merchants do. He felt something was not right but could not put his finger on it. I quickly figured out that the processor was adding 0.25 percent to the interchange-rate it was posting on the merchant statement."

He also discusses deceptive merchant statements:

Do not necessarily believe the numbers on your merchant statement. As previously mentioned, I analyzed a merchant statement where the interchange rates listed were not the true card association interchange rates. I analyzed a merchant statement where the per-item fee list was 6.2 cents, but after doing the calculations it was obvious that the merchant was being charged 6.5 cents; 0.3 cents may not seem significant, but for this large merchant it was.

"One of statement types I continually come across — which confuses merchants — is the one that does not show all the charges for the month on the statement, and in fact may delay showing all the charges for up to two months. I have spoken to salespeople who love this statement because when they sign up a new merchant, that merchant generally does a cost comparison after the first month to see how much money he or she is saving after switching processors. Unfortunately, the merchant does not realize that some of that month’s processing cost will not show up on the statement for up to two months. Therefore, a merchant’s total processing fees for April sales may not show up until the June statement."

Prestige Merchant Services offers potential merchants a free statement analysis so they can see how much they are paying and how much they can save by switching without a contract or set up fees.

The benefits of accepting credit cards.

The B2C has a great article that really outlines some of the many benefits of accepting credit cards for your business. Not all of them have to do with expanding your customer base:

Security – Besides the obvious fear of losing or being robbed of their cash, more and more consumers appreciate the security of using credit cards offered by their bank. This often comes in the form of backing up the consumer in the event of a dispute, lost card, etc. In addition, these protections are often provided for free as long as the event is reported in a timely manner.

Tracking – All of a consumer’s purchases are accounted for and can be totaled at the end of each day, week, month, and year. This also assures the consumer accuracy and regularity when it comes to their bank accounts and speeds up the rectifying process.

Convenience and Protection – When purchasing high dollar items with their credit or debit card, consumers are free to do so without having to write a check or carry large sums of cash. Some cards offer insurance for larger ticket items as part of the agreement. Many of the higher-end cards also offer protection on certain items purchased in the event of theft or acts of God. In addition, the record of the purchase can also be valuable for insurance claims.

Employee Purchases – Many employees make purchases on the behalf of their employers, or when they travel on company business. These people are often issued a company credit card that is to be used for all purchases for the company. These potential customers are therefore limited to merchants and service providers that accept credit cards.

Rewards – People who are enrolled in rewards programs will often go out of their way to pay by credit card. There are special incentives and rewards programs offered by almost every bank or Credit Card Company to their customers today. The points can go towards travel, shopping, even event tickets. While it is true that the merchant generally pays slightly higher rates for accepting these cards, the customers that use this type of card tend to spend more because they are incentivized.

Business to Business – Many sales can be lost to B2B purchasing by individual specialty type buyers and their companies. Businesses that are making purchases of products or services for their own internal use often prefer to pay with a credit card. This usually is for accounting reasons, but by not accepting credit cards you are losing out on the opportunity to serve those specialized and likely repeat customers.

Business Travelers – A smaller, but relevant group of potential customers are the business travelers. These customers almost always avoid carrying cash on them in any large amounts, plus they are more than likely writing much of their trips off of their taxes, so they want receipts as well as clear documentation in the form of a credit card statement.

Every day, credit card companies are finding new ways to entice consumers to use their plastic rather than paying with cash or a check. At first it may seem like the cost of accepting credit cards is too high for your business, but the truth is in most cases you cannot afford not to. Every year the numbers show that more and more consumers are using plastic to pay for their wants and needs, so it is better to get on board the trend before you are left behind.

Wondering Why PCI Compliance Is a Big Deal?

Cyber criminals are targeting point-of-sale terminals. 

POS devices read the magnetic stripe on the back of a card that contains account information, which is then transmitted for payment processing.

The POS systems that are connected to the Internet could fall prey to cyber attacks particularly  for small businesses. This is all according to Trustwave's global Security report of 2011:

Although there are rules for security controls that developers should use for the devices, such as the Payment Application Data Security standard (PA-DSS), Trustwave said that "these controls are rarely implemented properly."

Further, many small businesses rely on third-party integrators to support the POS devices. But those integrators often have poor security practices. In 87 percent of the breach cases it studied, the integrators make mistakes such as using default credentials in operating systems or with remote access systems, Trustwave said.

Using SEO to Grow Your Business: Black Hat SEO

Recently big corporations have run afoul of Google's webmaster guidelines. Companies like JCPenny and Overstock.com have been caught using tactics to inflate their positions within Google's rankings. If you want to make sure your business doesn't get blacklisted, you probably want to stay away from Blackhat SEO. What is Black Hat SEO? Black-hat SEO utilizes tricks to inflate your Google ranking positions but when Google finds out what your up to they will do to you what they did to these corporations or worse. How do you avoid this? PC World has some good tips and I suggest you read them.Remember, if you hire an SEO firm to help you get better search results, it's your responsibility to keep them in check.

Problem with Square Credit Card Processing

Square has been getting  tremendous media coverage for the past few months. They now have a lot more competition but they are still getting the most press. The fact still remains that unless you are a small timer, square is not the product for you. There are some serious drawbacks to using square as far as the allowed processing amounts go, which are not listed but vaguely referenced in their terms of service. Basically if you process more than $100 a day or $1000 a month they may hold your funds for 30 days! Between that and the high rates if you are serious about accepting credit cards you are best off with a merchant service provider that offers low rates and no contracts and free software.