Weeks after CurrentC was delayed (again) and half the team was laid off, the mobile payment that was supposed to serve as a merchant-backed alternative to payment systems from Apple and Android may be over for good. Or at least that’s the impression one might get from an email sent to testers of the system.
Not a surprise at all.
Though I can see Wallmart’s demographic using mainly non-Apple products, they do sell Apple products, and I, or one, do buy a few things there. I also prefer to shop at their stores which have self-checkouts. So what would it hurt them (and how much would it help them) to support Apple Pay in addition to whatever else they’re fooling around with? Same goes for Target where I buy a few other things.
In a similar way, I want PayPal to support Apple Pay with its debit cards which we use most often of any card, because we get paid from our customers mainly through PayPal. What would it hurt them? It would only help them, too, as we’d use their debit card more often.
I tried to bet good money on this outcome, but they didn’t take Apple Pay.
Finally, hope my CVS picks up Apple Pay now.
I felt sorry for the developers who were working on this turkey. Nothing is worse than being on a loser – and knowing it’s a loser.
Walmart and Target opperate on thin margins and volume. If they could control the payment system, they would have a competitive advantage against competitors.
I’m not sure they were looking for an advantage over competitors so much as an instant 2% or so increase to those thin margins.
I’m not prone to giving corporation credit for vision beyond the next quarter, so I’m inclined to agree, but if Walmart could gain that 2% margin they could lower prices and still maintain the 3-5% returns currently have. The business is volume and lower prices contribute to that.
CurrentC, Walmart Pay, Target Pay: The problem with these latest merchant-initiated efforts is that the consumer’s funds still have to be sourced from a bank debit/credit account somewhere, either via a MasterCard/Visa transaction, or via the clunky Automated Clearing House (ACH) “direct debit” process. Unfortunately, ACH direct debits are not processed in “real time” but are aggregated for overnight settlement, and, if the funds (or credit) are not available, the bank will reverse such debit the following day. The simple reality is, the ACH direct debit system was never intended, nor is it suitable, for the sourcing funds for goods/services that are going to immediately walk out the door.
Conversely, the banks’ interactive “card” payment system works, that’s why 99.9% of merchants accept such MasterCard/Visa transactions; but, more materially, and incomprehensively, those merchants that don’t like the higher discount fee of “credit” transactions have always had the option of accepting only “debit” transactions. So, the exercise would appear to be more about harvesting data on consumers than it is about the transaction cost, or am I missing something? …
What a total waste of time and money it is to try to develop an alternative to the universal system offered by the banks. It seems that these major merchants have forgotten what happened to those major merchant store-credit accounts that used to be around during the last century—before the original “bankcards” appeared.
Methinks that these latest merchant efforts will be stillborn or soon enough thereafter be added to the statistics on infantile deaths …
Indeed, it appears that CurrentC has been stillborn …
Google “Retail Payments: The Reality”
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